#11: What’s The Least Amount We Should Exercise To Get Solid Health Gains?
Exercise is the most powerful anti-death drug in existence; with no pharmaceutical even coming close. And we have the data to prove it.
People with low muscle mass roughly have a 200 % increase in the risk of all-cause mortality compared to people with high muscle mass. Also, those with low cardio, have a five times risk of dying early, from all causes, compared with those with high cardio.
Solid exercise will give you both muscle mass and good cardiorespiratory fitness. But generally, folks find this too high a price, with just 38 % of the Maltese classified as ‘non-sedentary’. And by ‘non-sedentary’, I mean that they brisk walk at least three times per week for half an hour.
That’s just a measly brisk walk. Let that sink in for a second.
It doesn’t take much to know that more effort is needed to increase muscle mass and cardiorespiratory fitness.
For health reasons, one should always strive to find the perfect balance between strength, cardiorespiratory fitness and coordination training.
A common misconception about exercise is that anything works, so long as it is ‘exercise’. But today we know that effort is far more important than ‘minutes served’. In fact, if effort is maximal, as little as five minutes of exercise per day would be enough for some serious health gains. Especially when it comes to preventing cancer (some cancers are associated with sedentary behaviours). This was determined by a UK-based study that found that ten minutes of vigorous exercise contributed to a 50 % risk reduction in cancer.
Five to ten minutes of vigorous exercise every day. Not too bad. You don’t even have to hit the gym, either. You could go out for a run with your dog, or hit the punching bag.
While this ‘bare minimum’ will give you substantial health gains, more is needed to get a good level of muscle mass, if not also total fitness.
Basing his rationale of a 2022 systematic review, longevity expert Peter Attia explained that when sedentary folks were given three hours per week of exercise, their risk of all-cause mortality dropped by 50 %. But there again, this exercise wasn’t simply about ‘time served’. Rather, it was about incorporating three different forms of exercise together. These were:
Resistance training.
Aerobic training (specifically ‘Zone 2’ training).
High-intensity action with coordinated movement. Boxing or shadowboxing are good examples.
Resistance Training
Minimalist strategies will always give you minimalist results. But if we are to talk about the minimum effective dose for resistance training on muscle growth, then that’s roughly two sessions per week if we are hitting the whole body each time.
If time is of the essence, then it goes without saying that one needs to structure the training to make as effective use of time as possible.
This could be done through:
Using antagonistic supersets and drop-sets. In doing so, you’ll hit different muscle groups (say legs and chest) simultaneously while keeping the heart rate high (to stimulate a degree of fat burning). Drop sets are another good idea. They can torch your muscles with a high-weight set and continue doing so with lower weight ranges (it could also help you dismantle equipment quicker).
Use myo-reps. Myo-reps are a specific rest-pause training technique that involves taking a working set to the point of failure to ensure maximum muscle fiber activation and then maintaining this muscle fiber activation over a sustained period by utilising short rest breaks and multiple short sets.
Avoid exercises that need a long warmup. Compound lifts like the bench press, squat, and deadlift need a few warm-up sets before maxing out on the target weight. So if time is a factor, you may want to skip these (even though they are effective exercises) and opt for others, like calisthenics.
Go for failure. The best way to tax the muscle is to go to failure every single time. With push-ups, for instance, you can max out on a set, rest a little, then repeat. Do this until you can barely carry yourself again (i.e. zero ‘RIRs’ or ‘reps in reserve’).
If one is to dedicate one hour a week to strength training, then it could be done in the form of two full-body sessions at least 48 hours apart.
Aerobic Training
Strength is one thing, but cardiorespiratory fitness is another.
The ‘gold standard’ aerobic training is known as ‘Zone 2’; a relatively light-intensity training forming part of a five-zone scale (this scales cardio intensity using heart rate ‘zones’).
Z1 is recovery
Z2 is easy (enough to hold a conversation)
Z3 is moderate
Z4 is hard
Z5 is very hard.
The Norwegian Olympic Federation (and many other bodies) define Z2 as 72 - 82 % of the Maximum Heart Rate (HRmax).
HRmax is measured by taking the number 220 and subtracting age (this is the ‘Fox Formula’). A 34-year-old male, therefore, would have an HRmax of 186 bpm.
At 72 - 82 % of an HRmax of 186 bpm, therefore, we’re looking at a Z2 range of 132 - 153 bpm.
Now, the trick is to keep that HR range for a prolonged state; somewhere in the range of 30 minutes, twice per week. You can do that in several ways. To mention a few:
Running
Cycling
Swimming
Rowing
Hiking
Skipping rope
Dancing
Sparring
Stair climbing
High-Intensity Coordination Training (HICT)
What use are muscles and ‘iron lungs’ if you cannot use them in a given situation?
The mechanism behind the benefit is somewhat unclear. One can argue that any skill-based movement is the marriage between muscle power and aerobic capacity.
In fact, athletic preparation vis-à-vis resistance and aerobic training is normally done to complement a sport, rather than the ‘be all, end all’ of training.
One meta-analysis found that multi-component training assessed the effectiveness of HICT programs in improving physical performance in older adults (65+ years old). Compared to no training, the HICT significantly improved physical performance. It also increased upper and lower limb strength, walking speed, and aerobic capacity. Moreover, it enhanced general functionality.
One other study replicated these results in patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. HICT induced more strength, more flexibility, and better aerobic fitness. HICT also reduced their HbA1C scores. 13 diabetic adults benefitted from this trial by training thrice a week for 16 weeks. Here’s what the training involved:
Warm-up (10 minutes).
HICT for coordination, muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and agility (50 minutes).
Stretching and relaxation (10 minutes).
What Does An Efficient Training Week Look Like?
Two sessions of strength training and two sessions of Z2 (the latter can be amalgamated with HICT) could provide you with the best bang for your buck.
Let’s consider the following:
Monday: strength (30 minutes)
Tuesday: Z2 (30 minutes) and HICT (30 minutes)
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: strength (30 minutes)
Friday: Z2 (30 minutes) and HIT (30 minutes)
Saturday: rest
Sunday: rest
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: minimalist training will give you minimalist results. So if you aggressively want to pack on some muscle mass, improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, and possibly live longer (and better), more hours and more effort are necessary.
Granted, not many of us have the time or the facilities to contend with the ideal. Because that would mean running around in the wild, catching and killing prey, and scrounging around for eatable goods.
