12 Minutes Of Bike Exercise Proven To Benefit Your Health

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We know that exercise is as important to our health as vital nutrients and following the vital guidance that doctors and other health professionals give out. The problem can be, especially for people with ultra-busy lives, that there just isn’t enough time in the day to commit to that cardio workout or gym session for it to feel like it is being productive.

Those folks should be happy to hear that a study of 411 middle-aged adults using data from the Framingham Heart Study has some interesting results. According to Harvard health:

“Researchers measured levels of 588 substances involved in metabolism (metabolites) in the volunteers’ blood before and immediately after 12 minutes of vigorous exercise on an exercise bike. The investigators detected changes in more than 80% of the metabolites, including favorable shifts in those linked to diabetes and heart disease. For example, exercise had beneficial effects on metabolites related to insulin resistance (a condition that is a precursor to diabetes), lipolysis (the breakdown of fats), inflammation, and blood vessel reactivity. These benefits appeared to be blunted among people with obesity.”

The way this study achieved its results is interesting. The “12 minutes of vigorous exercise” on the bike were achieved by ramping up the intensity of the workout in one-minute increments. To this end, the first minute was nothing more than a warm-up pace, but by the final minute the participants worked at max effort to pedal as quickly as possible against the resistance they were being given.

With all that in mind, this doesn’t seem like an immediate cure-all for everyone, especially those looking to get back into exercise for the first time in a while. For those people, this type of workout – one that seems to be proven to help with vital health  – is certainly something that could be aimed for somewhere down the line and built up to without over-stressing the body from its current point.

There is also a certain section of people that could immediately benefit from this type of short-form, short-burst exercise. Those are the people – and we are looking at you young professionals – who are still in good enough shape to blast out 12 minutes on an exercise bike each day, but haven’t been doing so on account of them thinking that less than a quarter of an hour of exercise doesn’t produce the type of health benefits they are looking for.

This isn’t an exercise regimen that will bulk up the body like a regular gym membership and ingesting the correct amounts of vital nutrients. Perhaps that is why this news will go unnoticed in some sectors. Instead, this is exercise news for the long term and it requires people thinking about their health before it starts to decline in order for the biggest and best benefits to be felt. Getting those metabolites working at their peak today – especially if you are still young and not exercising regularly – will do wonders for the health of your heart and your liver as you get older .

Another interesting aspect of this study requires more research but is worth considering if you don’t think that vigorous exercise is in your wheelhouse just yet. “We don’t know yet if moderate-intensity exercise would have a similar effect on metabolites. But study participants started off with very light exercise, and each minute the intensity increased,” says Dr. Gregory Lewis, the study’s senior author and a cardiologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

If it turns out that metabolites do start working at lower intensity levels then that will open up this type of quick – and effective – exercise to a massive range of people who would certainly benefit in the long run. Adding this burst of exercise on off-days to your current training program feels like something that we should all do if we want to lead longer and healthier lives.

Article By Vital Guidance

Golf Provides Competition & Great Opportunities To Teach Life Lessons

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There are plenty of people unable to take part in their favorite sports right now.  Be it playing or watching on TV, sports has always been a way for millions of Americans to escape everyday life for a set period and concentrate on nothing but the action and competition. With team sports being one of the first and longest-standing victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, getting a sports fix in has become hard. One sport that has survived – and perhaps even thrived – is golf, where the solitude of the game makes it just about as socially distant an activity as there is.

Golf is a great sport for kids to learn because of the values the game teaches and because it is something that can be played well into the swansong of life, unlike sports that end after high school,  college (football), or when the athleticism fades (basketball/soccer). Here are a few tips on getting kids onto the course and teaching them a vital life skill that will set them up nicely for whatever is around the corner in 2021

It must be fun

Golf is hard. In a world where attention spans and patience have basically been culled in the youth of today, getting them to concentrate on anything – let alone something as difficult is golf – can be a challenge. The way around this is to make it fun. The main way to make it fun is to introduce the game early – think those big plastic clubs and oversized balls – and just let them have at it. Don’t get too critical if they are in their teens and their stance is a little off. Instead, just let them experiment and see what they can do. Adding in a trip to a Top Golf or any similar competitor is also a great idea as these venues are literally designed to be more fun than serious.

The equipment must be right

Golf equipment can be expensive enough for an adult that has finished growing and will be able to hang on to a set of clubs for a decent length of time. With kids, the cost can be much worse because as they grow their club size needs will change. While getting something thy can grow into sounds good on paper, it is problematic in the short term when they cannot use the clubs properly. Don’t feel like you need to keep getting brand new sets either, however, as Facebook Marketplace is littered with sets other kids have grown out of and they often only have minor wear and tear. Also get your kid some fun balls to hit and let them pick out their own accessories to make it even more likely they will fall in love with the sport under your role as a vital mentor.

Always get a cart

While the benefits of walking the course are endless you may as well forget about it with kids in tow. For one the course length is a huge challenge for younger kids to take on and for two, well, what kid doesn’t love the experience of riding with a parent in a golf cart? This is a no-brainer of a choice to increase the day’s fun for you both.

Focus on them

This can be the hardest trick of all considering how every trip to the course should be seen as a chance to get better. When going with your kids, however, it just has to be all about them. This is not going to be your typical round to relax your life – it might actually add to the stress if your child is not having a good round – but it will be worth it in the end. Sure, hit some balls and play along, but spend your time helping out with questions and just enjoying your growing relationship with your child.

Article By Vital Guidance