How much exercise - as a minimum do you really need ?

Tough question because emotionally you might want a really big number like every day - two hours a day - or you really hate exercise but want to stay around long enough to see that grand-daughter getting married.

Wayne Westcott has been seriously researching this question at the South Shore YMCA, Quincy, Massachusetts and he might have the answer.

The ACSM [American Council on Sports Medicine] has a simple to understand recommendation on strength training and it is:

• 8 to 10 exercises covering all the major muscle groups
• 1 set of each exercise
• 8 to 12 reps per set
• exercise like this 2 or 3 times every week (non-consecutive day)
• full-range of pain-free movement i.e. no cheating by just doing part of a rep but don't go into the pain zone either
• Take about 6 seconds over each rep i.e. no rush, moderate speed but not dead slow either.

Wayne Westcott started using this minimum strength and endurance protocol in 1996 and since then has trained and studied more than 1600 men and women with ages ranging from 21 to 80 years.

So what can we learn from Wayne's experience concerning:

• changes in body weight (particularly weight loss)
• body composition (less fat and more muscles)
• blood pressure (lower would be good).

Image via Wikipedia

Because the ACSM recommendation says 2 or 3 times a week, he did 2 times a week with about half the people and 3 times a week with the other half.
Overall these are his numbers for results of doing the minimum recommended for just 10 weeks. In those 10 weeks, without changing anything else you'll see:

1. Body Weight change Loss 0.6 pounds
2. % body fat Reduced 2%
3. Weight of fat in body Reduced 3.7 pounds
4. Muscle and bone in bodt Increased 3.1 pounds
5. Systolic Blood pressure change Reduced 3.8 mm

Over the first 10 weeks of exercise the typical experience is to not lose much weight but for clothes to fit much better and smaller sizes become possible.

So if you really want to do the minimum but still get the health benefits should you exercise 2 or 3 times a week ?

The answer is 3 times a week if you want to lose weight and it's also 3 times a week if your objective is improvement in health.

However if want you really want to do is put on some more muscle, then 2 times a week seems to give the same result as 3 workouts a week.

Here are the numbers with working out 2 or 3 times a week:

1. Body Weight change Reduce 0.1 pounds with 2 times a week but 1.3 pounds with 3 times a week
   
2. % body fat Reduced 1.9% (2 /week) but 2.2% (3/week)
   
3. Weight of fat in body Reduced 3.2 pounds (2/week) but 4.4 pounds (3/week)
   
4. Muscle and bone in body Increased 3.1 pounds with both 2 and 3 /week.
   
5. Systolic Blood pressure change Reduced 3.1 mm (2/week) but 4.6 (3/week)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

10,000 steps a day

Use a pedometer to motivate yourself to walk just a little farther each day.

That small extra effort has a big payback according to Dr Dena Brevata's study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). She reviewed 26 different studies (and in the process read more than 2,00 articles) about the use and effectiveness of pedometers.

The results ? Use of a pedpometer encouraged users to increase the number of steps they take every day by more than 2,100. Enough to take a little weight off and to reduce blood pressure.

In the research, it showed that pedometer users, increased their stamina by about 27 percent and it showed that on average, the volunteers loss pounds and their blood pressure dropped, which is enough to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, Bravata said. She added, "Every night, you write down how many steps you walked that day. By flipping back through your diary, you're able to see patterns: 'On the two days a week I took the stairs, I increased my steps.'"

This is not a total solution to all your weight and health issues but is a good "step forward".

There are a vast range of pedometers but researchers tend to recommend not too cheap and not too expensive. Say around $20 to $30 for good product which will count steps accurately.