Exercise: A Little Goes a Long Way

Everyone knows exercise is good for you. Even so, it often manages to fall to the bottom of our priorities, especially when juggling the demands of our day. The good news is all you need are 15 minutes to provide health benefits, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Taiwan Department of Health. The results were published in the Lancet, a clinical medicine and global health journal.

Fifteen minutes of physical activity a day adds three years of life expectancy, decreases cancer mortality by 10 percent and reduces the rate of cardiovascular disease by 20 percent. Regular exercise can help prevent or manage several health problems including stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, depression and arthritis.

Now that you know why it’s good for you, and fitting in the prescribed 15 minutes sounds like something you can do on a daily basis, the only problem left is figuring out what to do. A combination of cardiovascular exercise and resistance training is best. For cardio, you don’t need any fancy equipment. All you need is a sidewalk or hiking trail. A brisk walk is one of the best ways to fulfill your 15 minutes. You can walk before you start your day, during your lunch break or after dinner.

But for this to be effective, you need to get your heart rate pumping. Experts recommend 60 percent to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate is best. Unless you own a heart rate monitor or are really good at taking your pulse, it’s difficult to accurately measure how hard you’re working. A personal trainer can explain a few ways to find your heart rate maximum and what percentage you should strive for when exercising.  But, an even simpler way to make walking effective is to find a pace that leaves you out of breath. You shouldn’t be able to talk on the phone or gab with your neighbor. Another way to think about it is if you were going to rate how hard you are working on a scale of one to 10, strive for a seven or eight.
When it comes to resistance training, you can plan out a 15-minute resistance circuit. Choose five to seven exercises so that you are covering each muscle group and cycle through those exercises three to four times until 15 minutes is up.

Whether you are using your own body weight, dumbbells or a fitness band, you should try to perform as many repetitions as you can until failure (when your muscle is so tired it can’t do the exercise again). Try to choose one exercise for each major muscle group: the front of your legs or quadriceps, back of your legs or hamstrings, your chest, back, shoulders and abs or core.  You can throw in an arms exercise or two if you’d like. But if you are doing compound exercises, you’ll probably hit those muscles when working the rest of your upper body.

The Internet is a great resource on finding beginner exercises for each of these muscle groups, no matter what equipment you plan to use. You may also want to consider hiring a professional to show you a couple of 15-minute circuits that you can do in your home.

Alternate between the cardio and weights from day to day and feel free to take one rest day if you need it. Throw in a few stretches for extra credit and you’ll be making great strides to improve your health, range of motion and reduce your daily pains. We all have 15 minutes to devote to getting active, so carve out your time today.