Does intensity matter?

The minimum recommended amount of cardiovascular exercise for adults is 150 of moderate intensity, or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise weekly. But, what does that mean? Is one better than the other? Do you get the benefits if you only do one type?

First, any amount of exercise is better than none. If you don’t have much time, don’t dismiss a short workout as not being worthwhile, but longer, lower intensity workouts also have many benefits.

The benefits of moderate intensity exercise

Moderate intensity exercise increases your cardiovascular fitness while reducing the risk of injury. They are great workout for new exercisers, and athletes recovering from more intense training sessions. Moderate intensity exercise includes fast walking or easy running, cycling, hiking, swimming, and other aerobic exercise that is performed at a comfortable pace.

These workouts build endurance, improve mental and cognitive health and can improve sleep quality. Moderate intensity exercise can help to manage blood pressure, reduce blood sugar and improve cholesterol levels. They should be part of a comprehensive training program, but not all exercise needs to be done at a moderate intensity.

People with certain health conditions may find moderate exercise very beneficial, especially when starting to exercise. While this is not a complete list, doctors should prescribe exercise when managing the following conditions:

• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• heart disease
• diabetes
• obesity
• osteoporosis
• arthritis
• cancer
• anxiety or depression

Intensity is personal

Intensity depends on many things including your current fitness level, exercise capabilities, overall health and fatigue levels. You can use your heart rate, Rating of Perceived Exertion or a Talk test to track intensity. In general, longer workouts are done at a moderate intensity and are easier to recover from.

Vigorous Intensity

Higher intensity exercise also brings health benefits. These include improved cardiovascular fitness, especially lowering diastolic blood pressure (the lower number which refers to the relaxation phase of your blood vessels), improved blood sugar control, increased aerobic capacity, improved mood and improved longevity.

Vigorous intensity exercise requires a warm-up, to prepare your body for the challenges and a cool down, to slowly return your heart rate to resting rates. These workouts are usually shorter than moderate intensity exercise and can be done as an interval workout, meaning that you would alternate periods of higher intensity exercise with a lower intensity recovery phase.

Increasing your exercise intensity can save time while maximizing the fitness benefits. However, make sure you ease into higher effort workouts and pay attention to how you feel. If you are just getting started with an exercise program or managing a health condition, get medical clearance before beginning strenuous workouts.

Three minutes could change your health

New research from Rockefeller University found impressive changes in blood proteins after short bouts of vigorous exercise. In a small study of men only, the researchers found that a 3-minute sprint session results in a molecular shift in the bloodstream, altering nearly 25% of measured blood proteins immediately after exercise. In contrast, after 90 minutes of moderate cycling the changes were less than 0.25%. While a moderate treadmill run resulted in more protein changes than cycling, it was still much less then the impact delivered by short, high-intensity sprints.

The researchers found that a workout consisting of six, 30-second sprints changed more than 200 metabolites and increased levels of protein in the blood vessels that are involved in blood vessel growth, tissue remodeling and hormonal signaling. They also tested how fat cells responded to blood after the high-intensity sprint sessions and found widespread changes in gene activity. This included how fat cells processed fuel, detected available nutrients and reacted to hormones.

That doesn’t mean moderate activity didn’t change blood proteins. It just didn’t have the immediate effects. The rise in metabolites after endurance exercise took about three hours post-workout to see changes.

The researchers also looked at health information data from 53,000 specimens and found that the proteins that responded to exercise were associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic diseases, like obesity and type 2 diabetes.

What does it mean for you?

Exercise intensity matters. Don’t get stuck in a rut doing the same workout at the same intensity over and over again.

Intensity is personal. Start with what feels manageable for you and gradually progress to higher intensity workouts.

It all adds up. Starting with moderate intensity is a great way to increase your capacity to be able to increase intensity.

All exercise will promote health benefits, if you can’t do a longer workout, shorter duration, higher intensity workouts provide immediate results.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla