Most
people understand exercise as a stress that you willingly (or unwillingly)
place on your body in order to gain a positive response. Many patients are concerned that if they
aren’t feeling tired, hot, and sweaty, they simply aren’t working hard enough
for such a response to be beneficial.
While intensity is an important component of exercise (and there are
specific benefits to be obtained from intense exercise that cannot be replicated
elsewhere), exercise with longer duration and less intensity has significant
value and should not be discounted.
Specifically, continued movement for >45 minutes at a pace that consistently
elevates your heart rate but leaves you able to talk comfortably in complete
sentences has been shown to improve rates of angiogenesis (new blood vessel
formation) [2], equivalent improvements in VO2 max (the gold standard
measurement for aerobic capacity) [3], and perhaps most applicably, higher
rates of enjoyment [4] than more intense interval efforts.
[4] Foster, C. et al. J Sports Sci Med 2015;14(4):747–55
My
recommendation:
Exercise
every day, but don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. If you aren’t ready to consistently get out
of breath and sweaty in your pursuit of health, and would otherwise forego
exercise due to lack of perceived value, rest assured that longer duration,
lower intensity exercise is still a massive boon to your health and should be
pursued with vigor!
David
Ellis MD
