{"id":8586,"date":"2023-08-01T15:36:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T07:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=8586"},"modified":"2023-08-01T15:36:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T07:36:49","slug":"the-magic-number-how-many-days-a-week-you-need-to-exercise-to-see-real-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/the-magic-number-how-many-days-a-week-you-need-to-exercise-to-see-real-benefit\/","title":{"rendered":"The magic number: How many days a week you need to exercise to see real benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Want the health benefits of exercising, but aren\u2019t too keen on pounding the pavement or pumping iron every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edith Cowan University (ECU) may be able to clarify how many times per week you need to exercise to make it worth your while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new study<\/a> saw participants perform a single three-second, maximum-effort eccentric bicep contraction \u2014 similar to slowly lowering a heavy dumbbell, from a bent arm to a straight arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous ECU research<\/a> showed this can significantly improve muscle strength when it\u2019s performed daily for five days a week (Monday \u2013 Friday), for four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants in the new study were split into two groups, with the first group performing a single three-second contraction two days per week, and the other performing the same exercise on three days per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After four weeks, researchers compared the participants\u2019 bicep strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who performed the exercise two-days per week saw no significant changes, however the three-day group saw small but significant increases in concentric strength (2.5 per cent) and eccentric strength (3.9 per cent).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Study lead\u00a0Professor Ken Nosaka\u00a0said the results helped to further improve our understanding of how our body responds to exercise \u2014 and how people can then put that knowledge to good use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur\u00a0previous work<\/a>\u00a0has shown regular, shorter exercise is more beneficial than a one or two big training sessions in a week,\u201d Professor Nosaka said. \u201cNow, we have a clearer idea of where the tipping point is where you start to see meaningful benefits from such a minimal exercise. These new results suggest at least three days a week are required, at least for the single three-second eccentric contraction training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three is good\u2026 but five is better<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the findings showed three days per week will have an impact, finding the willpower to put in a couple of extra days of exercise per week will produce better results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous study\u2019s participants who performed the exercise five days a week saw greater improvements in strength \u2014 more than 10% increases \u2014 than the three-day group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Professor Nosaka stressed this didn\u2019t mean exercising every day would improve results even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuscle adaptations occur when we are resting, so muscles need rest to improve their strength and their muscle mass,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should be noted that the exercise was only three seconds, so the rest between exercises in the study was close to 28,800 times more than the exercise time. But muscles do appear to like to be stimulated more frequently, especially for the small volume of muscle strengthening exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying it to real life<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Professor Nosaka said more research was needed to see if the study\u2019s findings apply to other types and volumes of exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuscles enjoying frequent stimulation may not necessarily be the case for a greater volume of aerobic exercise to improve cardiovascular function, or muscle strengthening exercise such as working out at a gym,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, it may be that exercising once a week for 2 hours is less effective than exercising every day for 20 minutes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it is not possible to have 20 minutes a day for exercise, even five minutes a day makes a difference for fitness and health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, more studies are needed to confirm this, but our recent studies show the importance of accumulating small amount of exercise as frequently as possible in a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important to note that even a very small amount of exercise can make a difference to our body, if it is performed regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Weekly minimum frequency of one maximal eccentric contraction to increase muscle strength of the elbow flexors\u2019 was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If it is not possible to have 20 minutes a day for exercise, even five minutes a day makes a difference for fitness and health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[802,2269,901],"class_list":["post-8586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness-2","tag-exercise","tag-mental-exercise","tag-tummy-exercise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8588,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586\/revisions\/8588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}