What’s the Single Best Exercise?

[Guest guest]

Extracts from the NY times:

What's the Single Best Exercise?

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Published: April 15, 2011

Let's consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in sports, the

butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a

10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs.

It burns more calories, demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue

than those other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a

swimmer's endurance and contribute to weight control.

So is the butterfly the best single exercise that there is? Well, no. The

butterfly " would probably get my vote for the worst " exercise, said Greg Whyte,

a professor of sport and exercise science at Liverpool s University in

England and a past Olympian in the modern pentathlon, known for his swimming.

The butterfly, he said, is " miserable, isolating, painful. " It requires a coach,

a pool and ideally supplemental weight and flexibility training to reduce the

high risk of injury.

Ask a dozen physiologists which exercise is best, and you'll get a dozen wildly

divergent replies. " Trying to choose " a single best exercise is " like trying to

condense the entire field " of exercise science, said Gibala, the chairman

of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-fashioned

calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out

behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. " It builds

muscles. It builds endurance. " He paused. " But it's hard to imagine most people

enjoying " an all-burpees program, " or sticking with it for long. "

And sticking with an exercise is key, even if you don't spend a lot of time

working out. The health benefits of activity follow a breathtakingly steep

curve. " The majority of the mortality-related benefits " from exercising are due

to the first 30 minutes of exercise, said Church, M.D., who holds the

S. McIlhenny endowed chair in health wisdom at the Pennington Biomedical

Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. A recent meta-analysis of studies about

exercise and mortality showed that, in general, a sedentary person's risk of

dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20 percent if he or she

began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30 minutes five times a week. If he

or she tripled that amount, for instance, to 90 minutes of exercise four or five

times a week, his or her risk of premature death dropped by only another 4

percent. So the one indisputable aspect of the single best exercise is that it

be sustainable. From there, though, the debate grows heated.

" I personally think that brisk walking is far and away the single best

exercise, " said Joyner, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo

Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a leading researcher in the field of endurance

exercise.

As proof, he points to the work of Hiroshi Nose, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of

sports medical sciences at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in

Japan, who has enrolled thousands of older Japanese citizens in an innovative,

five-month-long program of brisk, interval-style walking (three minutes of fast

walking, followed by three minutes of slower walking, repeated 10 times). The

results have been striking. " Physical fitness — maximal aerobic power and thigh

muscle strength — increased by about 20 percent, " Dr. Nose wrote in an e-mail,

" which is sure to make you feel about 10 years younger than before training. "

The walkers' " symptoms of lifestyle-related diseases (hypertension,

hyperglycemia and obesity) decreased by about 20 percent, " he added, while their

depression scores dropped by half.

Walking has also been shown by other researchers to aid materially in weight

control. A 15-year study found that middle-aged women who walked for at least an

hour a day maintained their weight over the decades. Those who didn't gained

weight. In addition, a recent seminal study found that when older people started

a regular program of brisk walking, the volume of their hippocampus, a portion

of the brain involved in memory, increased significantly.

But let's face it, walking holds little appeal — or physiological benefit — for

anyone who already exercises. " I nominate the squat, " said Stuart ,

Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and an expert on the

effects of resistance training on the human body. The squat " activates the

body's biggest muscles, those in the buttocks, back and legs. " It's simple.

" Just fold your arms across your chest, " he said, " bend your knees and lower

your trunk until your thighs are about parallel with the floor. Do that 25

times. It's a very potent exercise. " Use a barbell once the body-weight squats

grow easy.

The squat, and weight training in general, are particularly good at combating

sarcopenia, he said, or the inevitable and debilitating loss of muscle mass that

accompanies advancing age. " Each of us is experiencing sarcopenia right this

minute, " he said. " We just don't realize it. " Endurance exercise, he added,

unlike resistance training, does little to slow the condition....

" I think, actually, that you can make a strong case for H.I.T., " Gibala said.

High-intensity interval training, or H.I.T. as it's familiarly known among

physiologists, is essentially all-interval exercise. As studied in Gibala's lab,

it involves grunting through a series of short, strenuous intervals on

specialized stationary bicycles, known as Wingate ergometers. In his first

experiments, riders completed 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the

riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the volunteers repeated the

interval several times, for a total of two to three minutes of extremely intense

exercise. After two weeks, the H.I.T. riders, with less than 20 minutes of hard

effort behind them, had increased their aerobic capacity as much as riders who

had pedaled leisurely for more than 10 hours. Other researchers also have found

that H.I.T. reduces blood-sugar levels and diabetes risk, and Gibala anticipates

that it will aid in weight control, although he hasn't studied that topic fully

yet.

The approach seems promising, since most of us have minimal time to exercise

each week. Gibala last month published a new study of H.I.T., requiring only a

stationary bicycle and some degree of grit. In this modified version, you sprint

for 60 seconds at a pace that feels unpleasant but sustainable, followed by 60

seconds of pedaling easily, then another 60-second sprint and recovery, 10 times

in all. " There's no particular reason why " H.I.T. shouldn't be adaptable to

almost any sport, Gibala said, as long as you adequately push yourself.

Of course, to be effective, H.I.T. must hurt. But a study published last month

found that when a group of recreational runners practiced H.I.T. on the track,

they enjoyed the workout more than a second group of runners who jogged

continuously for 50 minutes. The H.I.T. runners, the study's authors suspect,

were less bored.

The only glaring inadequacy of H.I.T. is that it builds muscular strength less

effectively than, say, the squat. But even that can be partially remedied,

Gibala said: " Sprinting up stairs is a power workout and interval session

simultaneously. " Meaning that running up steps just might be the single best

exercise of all.

================

Carruthers

Wakefield, UK

[Guest guest]

I thought we settled this? The clean and jerk with a squat clean then

jerk is, to me, the best single exercise -- given we have the

opportunity for only 1 exercise. Even without the squat clean, its

really good! The effect is enhanced? if, at times, we lower the weight

eccentrically from the press, from the clean(though it will be quite

rapid) and do a Rumanian to the bottom. Can't beat it!?

Jerry Telle

Lakewood CO USA

On Apr 26, 2011, at 12:33 PM, carruthersjam wrote:

> Extracts from the NY times:

>

> What's the Single Best Exercise?

> By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

> Published: April 15, 2011

>

> Let's consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in

> sports, the butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14

> miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive

> basketball or carrying furniture upstairs. It burns more calories,

> demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue than those

> other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a

> swimmer's endurance and contribute to weight control.

>

> So is the butterfly the best single exercise that there is? Well,

> no. The butterfly " would probably get my vote for the worst "

> exercise, said Greg Whyte, a professor of sport and exercise science

> at Liverpool s University in England and a past Olympian

> in the modern pentathlon, known for his swimming. The butterfly, he

> said, is " miserable, isolating, painful. " It requires a coach, a

> pool and ideally supplemental weight and flexibility training to

> reduce the high risk of injury.

>

> Ask a dozen physiologists which exercise is best, and you'll get a

> dozen wildly divergent replies. " Trying to choose " a single best

> exercise is " like trying to condense the entire field " of exercise

> science, said Gibala, the chairman of the department of

> kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

>

> But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-

> fashioned calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground,

> kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as

> high as you can. " It builds muscles. It builds endurance. " He

> paused. " But it's hard to imagine most people enjoying " an all-

> burpees program, " or sticking with it for long. "

>

> And sticking with an exercise is key, even if you don't spend a lot

> of time working out. The health benefits of activity follow a

> breathtakingly steep curve. " The majority of the mortality-related

> benefits " from exercising are due to the first 30 minutes of

> exercise, said Church, M.D., who holds the S. McIlhenny

> endowed chair in health wisdom at the Pennington Biomedical Research

> Center in Baton Rouge, La. A recent meta-analysis of studies about

> exercise and mortality showed that, in general, a sedentary person's

> risk of dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20

> percent if he or she began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30

> minutes five times a week. If he or she tripled that amount, for

> instance, to 90 minutes of exercise four or five times a week, his

> or her risk of premature death dropped by only another 4 percent. So

> the one indisputable aspect of the single best exercise is that it

> be sustainable. From there, though, the debate grows heated.

>

> " I personally think that brisk walking is far and away the single

> best exercise, " said Joyner, M.D., a professor of

> anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a leading

> researcher in the field of endurance exercise.

>

> As proof, he points to the work of Hiroshi Nose, M.D., Ph.D., a

> professor of sports medical sciences at Shinshu University Graduate

> School of Medicine in Japan, who has enrolled thousands of older

> Japanese citizens in an innovative, five-month-long program of

> brisk, interval-style walking (three minutes of fast walking,

> followed by three minutes of slower walking, repeated 10 times). The

> results have been striking. " Physical fitness — maximal aerobic

> power and thigh muscle strength — increased by about 20 percent, "

> Dr. Nose wrote in an e-mail, " which is sure to make you feel about

> 10 years younger than before training. " The walkers' " symptoms of

> lifestyle-related diseases (hypertension, hyperglycemia and obesity)

> decreased by about 20 percent, " he added, while their depression

> scores dropped by half.

>

> Walking has also been shown by other researchers to aid materially

> in weight control. A 15-year study found that middle-aged women who

> walked for at least an hour a day maintained their weight over the

> decades. Those who didn't gained weight. In addition, a recent

> seminal study found that when older people started a regular program

> of brisk walking, the volume of their hippocampus, a portion of the

> brain involved in memory, increased significantly.

>

> But let's face it, walking holds little appeal — or physiological

> benefit — for anyone who already exercises. " I nominate the squat, "

> said Stuart , Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster

> University and an expert on the effects of resistance training on

> the human body. The squat " activates the body's biggest muscles,

> those in the buttocks, back and legs. " It's simple. " Just fold your

> arms across your chest, " he said, " bend your knees and lower your

> trunk until your thighs are about parallel with the floor. Do that

> 25 times. It's a very potent exercise. " Use a barbell once the body-

> weight squats grow easy.

>

> The squat, and weight training in general, are particularly good at

> combating sarcopenia, he said, or the inevitable and debilitating

> loss of muscle mass that accompanies advancing age. " Each of us is

> experiencing sarcopenia right this minute, " he said. " We just don't

> realize it. " Endurance exercise, he added, unlike resistance

> training, does little to slow the condition....

>

> " I think, actually, that you can make a strong case for H.I.T., "

> Gibala said. High-intensity interval training, or H.I.T. as it's

> familiarly known among physiologists, is essentially all-interval

> exercise. As studied in Gibala's lab, it involves grunting through a

> series of short, strenuous intervals on specialized stationary

> bicycles, known as Wingate ergometers. In his first experiments,

> riders completed 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the

> riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the volunteers

> repeated the interval several times, for a total of two to three

> minutes of extremely intense exercise. After two weeks, the H.I.T.

> riders, with less than 20 minutes of hard effort behind them, had

> increased their aerobic capacity as much as riders who had pedaled

> leisurely for more than 10 hours. Other researchers also have found

> that H.I.T. reduces blood-sugar levels and diabetes risk, and Gibala

> anticipates that it will aid in weight control, although he hasn't

> studied that topic fully yet.

>

> The approach seems promising, since most of us have minimal time to

> exercise each week. Gibala last month published a new study of

> H.I.T., requiring only a stationary bicycle and some degree of grit.

> In this modified version, you sprint for 60 seconds at a pace that

> feels unpleasant but sustainable, followed by 60 seconds of pedaling

> easily, then another 60-second sprint and recovery, 10 times in all.

> " There's no particular reason why " H.I.T. shouldn't be adaptable to

> almost any sport, Gibala said, as long as you adequately push

> yourself.

>

> Of course, to be effective, H.I.T. must hurt. But a study published

> last month found that when a group of recreational runners practiced

> H.I.T. on the track, they enjoyed the workout more than a second

> group of runners who jogged continuously for 50 minutes. The H.I.T.

> runners, the study's authors suspect, were less bored.

>

> The only glaring inadequacy of H.I.T. is that it builds muscular

> strength less effectively than, say, the squat. But even that can be

> partially remedied, Gibala said: " Sprinting up stairs is a power

> workout and interval session simultaneously. " Meaning that running up

> steps just might be the single best exercise of all.

>

> ================

> Carruthers

> Wakefield, UK

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Myles,

I think yours is the best reply.

Giovanni Ciriani - West Hartford, CT - USA

On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 5:47 PM, <AudioMaven@...> wrote:

>

>

> Does anyone besides me think that the whole premise of the article is

> ridiculous? It is all about selling magazines (BTW this comes from a former

>

> magazine publisher). FYI, the best selling issues of a given magazine sport

>

> cover lines like 100 Best, 10 Best, etc. Followup on these issues

> consistently

> show 5 to 10% more sell thru at the newsstand. So for me, this piece has

> little or nothing to do with promoting fitness and training.

>

> The reason it's ridiculous: basic principle of individuality. It would be

> like my training my clients with the same program that I do because what

> works for me will work for them. BS

>

> That doesn't even get into the deeper ridiculousness of this question: is

> the person even ready for this. No for the majority reading this piece. Yes

>

> a DL done properly is a great exercise but how many are ready for it, do

> it properly--or can even do it because of injuries. And we can get into the

>

> question of latent, lurking back injuries.

>

> Myles B. Astor, PhD

> Equinox Fitness Clubs, 74th St.

> New York, NY

> USA

>

>

>

>