New Study Suggests That Four Workouts A Week Are Better Than Six

A common concern about exercise is that if you don’t do it almost every day, you won’t achieve much health benefit. But a commendable new study suggests otherwise, showing that a fairly leisurely approach to scheduling workouts may actually be more beneficial than working out almost daily.

For the new study, published this month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham gathered 72 older, sedentary women, ages 60 to 74, and randomly assigned them to one of three exercise groups.

One group began lifting weights once a week and performing an endurance-style workout, like jogging or bike riding, on another day. Another group lifted weights twice a week and jogged or rode an exercise bike twice a week. The final group, as you may have guessed, completed three weight-lifting and three endurance sessions, or six weekly workouts.

The exercise, which was supervised by researchers, was easy at first and meant to elicit changes in both muscles and endurance. Over the course of four months, the intensity and duration gradually increased, until the women were jogging moderately for 40 minutes and lifting weights for about the same amount of time.

The researchers were hoping to find out which number of weekly workouts would be, Goldilocks-like, just right for increasing the women’s fitness and overall weekly energy expenditure.

Some previous studies had suggested that working out only once or twice a week produced few gains in fitness, while exercising vigorously almost every day sometimes led people to become less physically active, over all, than those formally exercising less. Researchers theorized that the more grueling workout schedule caused the central nervous system to respond as if people were overdoing things, sending out physiological signals that, in an unconscious internal reaction, prompted them to feel tired or lethargic and stop moving so much.

To determine if either of these possibilities held true among their volunteers, the researchers in the current study tracked the women’s blood levels of cytokines, a substance related to stress that is thought to be one of the signals the nervous system uses to determine if someone is overdoing things physically. They also measured the women’s changing aerobic capacities, muscle strength, body fat, moods and, using sophisticated calorimetry techniques, energy expenditure over the course of each week.

By the end of the four-month experiment, all of the women had gained endurance and strength and shed body fat, although weight loss was not the point of the study. The scientists had not asked the women to change their eating habits.

There were, remarkably, almost no differences in fitness gains among the groups. The women working out twice a week had become as powerful and aerobically fit as those who had worked out six times a week. There were no discernible differences in cytokine levels among the groups, either.

However, the women exercising four times per week were now expending far more energy, over all, than the women in either of the other two groups. They were burning about 225 additional calories each day, beyond what they expended while exercising, compared to their calorie burning at the start of the experiment.

The twice-a-week exercisers also were using more energy each day than they had been at first, burning almost 100 calories more daily, in addition to the calories used during workouts.

But the women who had been assigned to exercise six times per week were now expending considerably less daily energy than they had been at the experiment’s start, the equivalent of almost 200 fewer calories each day, even though they were exercising so assiduously.

“We think that the women in the twice-a-week and four-times-a-week groups felt more energized and physically capable” after several months of training than they had at the start of the study, says Gary Hunter, a U.A.B. professor who led the experiment. Based on conversations with the women, he says he thinks they began opting for stairs over escalators and walking for pleasure.

The women working out six times a week, though, reacted very differently. “They complained to us that working out six times a week took too much time,” Dr. Hunter says. They did not report feeling fatigued or physically droopy. Their bodies were not producing excessive levels of cytokines, sending invisible messages to the body to slow down.

Rather, they felt pressed for time and reacted, it seems, by making choices like driving instead of walking and impatiently avoiding the stairs.

Despite the cautionary note, those who insist on working out six times per week need not feel discouraged. As long as you consciously monitor your activity level, the findings suggest, you won’t necessarily and unconsciously wind up moving less over all.

But the more fundamental finding of this study, Dr. Hunter says, is that “less may be more,” a message that most likely resonates with far more of us. The women exercising four times a week “had the greatest overall increase in energy expenditure,” he says. But those working out only twice a week “weren’t far behind.”

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4 Exercises To Improve Your Tennis Serve

When watching the likes of Nadal and Murray performing their monstrously powerful serves during big Tennis tournaments, you might assume that it is pure brute force that fuels their 150mph + efforts. While a degree of strength and muscularity is required to produce the sufficient forced required to propel the ball at such meteoric speeds, technique and power are king when it comes to hitting aces set after set. Technique is something that can only be perfected with years of practice on the court but power is an attribute you can work on in the weights room.

You might think that differentiating ‘speed’ and ‘power’ is splitting hairs but there are distinct differences between the two. While strength refers to the amount of weight you can move, power is a measure of how fast you can move it. Being able to bench press 300 pounds is a great achievement, but if you can’t do it explosively, i.e. with power (speed) then it is not relevant for any sports field.

Developing power is all about performing your reps quickly, while still maintaining good form. It’s no good twisting your spine in an attempt to haul a personal best as quickly as possible because a slipped disc will put your Tennis career on the rocks. Here are some great exercises that will develop your explosive power and possibly add a few mph to your serve:

Power Clean

Starting from a standing position, holding a barbell so it hangs in front of you, bend at the knees and drive the bar upwards using your entire body. Twist your hands around and ‘catch’ the bar so your arms are pressed against your chest and the bar rests across your clavicles (upper chest).

Clean and Press

The first phase of this move is very similar to a clean and press but it finishes with an over head press. Once the bar is resting on the upper chest, explode up with the legs and press the bar straight up above your head. Lower and repeat.

Jump Squat

The standard squat is a great exercise for adding size and strength to the lower body, but their lesser know cousin, the jump squat is much more adept at developing explosive power. Rest a barbell across the trapezius and squat down as if performing a regular version of the exercise, rather than simply standing up, jump as high as possible, landing with bent knees in preparation for the next rep. 

Plank

While not strictly a power exercise, the plank address core stability which is crucial in transferring power from the lower to the upper body. Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor. Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows. Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air or sagging in the middle.

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Exercises Every Woman Should Do

BUTT AND THIGHS:

1. Crossover lunge
In a standing position, place your hands on your hips and brace your abs. Step your right leg diagonally behind you, keeping all of your weight centered over your left heel. Return to the starting position. Repeat 10-15 times on this leg before switching to the other side. Rest for one minute and repeat. The focus in this exercise is on the glutes (bottom).

2. Plyometric lunge
This will not only get your heart and lungs going, it's great for the butt and thighs. Kneel on your left knee with your right leg on a right angle in front of you. Place your hands on your hips and brace your abs. From this position, jump directly upwards and switch feet mid-air, landing softly and taking care not to allow your back knee to touch the floor. Continue to alternate legs until you have performed 10-15 repetitions. Rest for 1 minute and repeat.

BACK, SHOULDERS AND TRICEPS:

3. Pullover
This exercise is great for strengthening and toning the lats (upper back) and obliques (waist). Lying on your back on the floor with your knees bent, ensure you keep your lower back and shoulder blades in contact with the floor throughout this exercise. Holding a dumbbell in both hands with arms straight above your chest. Slowly lower the dumbbell back with a slight bend in your elbow and return to the starting position over your chest. Repeat 10-15 times. Rest for 1 minute and repeat.

4. Tricep press
In a push-up position on the floor, position your hands beneath your shoulders and brace your shoulder blades downwards by pulling your shoulders away from your ears. Keep your abs braced and your elbows in tight to your sides as you bend your elbows and lower your chest towards the floor, then return to the starting position. This is a difficult movement which isolates the triceps (back of upper arms), so it's likely you will need to do this on your knees rather than your toes.

5. Side shoulder raise
This is a great exercise for shapely, toned shoulders and arms. In a standing or seated position, pick up a light dumbell in each hand and keep your abs braced. Brace your shoulder blades in a downward position by pulling your shoulders down away from your ears. To activate the right muscle, focus on lifting from your elbows rather than your hands. Raise your arms out to the side (with the back of your hand facing forward) until your elbow is at shoulder level and return to the starting position. Ensure you keep your shoulder blades braced to avoid activating the upper trapezius (thick neck muscle). If the dumbbells make the technique difficult to master, practise without weight until you perfect it. Complete 10-15 repetitions, rest for 1 minute and repeat.

ABS/CORE:

6. Modified V-sits
Lying on the floor with your arms outstretched overhead, brace your abs and press your lower back into the floor throughout the entire set. Lift your legs and curl your upper body forward (think ribcage towards hip bones) as you form a V. Slowly reverse this movement until you are in the starting position, but don't release your ab brace until you have completed 10-15 repetitions. Rest for one minute and repeat.

7. Dish holds
Dish holds encourage great core endurance and strength. Lying on the floor on your back, pull your knees into your chest and curl your upper body forward to lift your shoulder blades off the floor, pressing your lower back hard into the floor. This is the basic dish hold. If this feels relatively easy, you can increase the intensity by opening out the position, as long as you are still able to keep your lower back pressed into the floor. Hold for at 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds and repeat 6 times. Remember to breathe!

8. Oblique dish holds
This exercise is brilliant for targeting the obliques (waist). Lying on your back with your arms outstretched above your head, assume a dish position by pressing your lower back into the floor and lifting your legs off the floor and curling your upper body forward. Tilt your body over to one side until your weight rests on the back of your hip. As you hold this position you will feel your upper oblique start to burn. Hold for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times on each side.

WHOLE BODY:

9. Side plank
Start in a push-up position on your toes and tilt yourself over to one side until you are supporting your weight on one hand positioned directly beneath your shoulder. Brace your body in a straight line avoiding sagging through the middle. To increase intensity, you can lift your free arm in the air with fingers outstretched towards the ceiling. To spice it up a bit more, you can also lift your upper leg. As each challenge is added, the intensity increases, so ensure you can hold the basic plank before mixing it up. Work your way up to holding this position for 60 seconds. Release and repeat on the opposite side.

10. Plank walk
The plank walk focuses on your core. Start in a push up position with your abs braced tightly and your hips level with your shoulders. Walk your hands forward as far as you can (without causing strain on your back) and then walk your feet towards your hands until you form a pike position with your hips above your shoulders. Continue this walk 3 times forward and 3 times backward.

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