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“It’s better to run 10 minutes every day than an hour on Sundays,” says athletic trainer Lucile Woodward.
SPORT – lack of time, desire and motivation. January is drawing to a close and you already feel like you’ve broken your resolution to get back into the sport. But good news, you don’t have to kill yourself at the gym for two hours every other day for this to be effective.
Of course, the more physical activity you do, the better it is. But for beginners or those with a particular medical history, there’s no need to set a goal that most of the time will make you give up. Because yes, the famous myth that less than 30 minutes of exercise is useless is wrong.
“It’s a myth from the 1980s and 1990s that says that after 45 minutes of exertion, the body burns fat and that’s when it starts to get interesting,” explains Lucile Woodward, sports coach and journalist for Les Maternelles on France 5. She admits that the body burns fat after 45 minutes “that’s right”. “But losing weight and maintaining your body isn’t just about burning fat. You need to build muscle, train your heart and endurance. »
Especially since if you’re just starting out, 30 minutes of exercise a day is enough to see physical changes. “Any sport is effective for any duration,” says the sports coach.
Prioritize quality over quantity
In order to have effective exercise sessions, there are two things to consider: regularity and a mix of cardiovascular training, better known as cardio, and muscle strengthening. “Having physical activity for half an hour a day with these two elements is great,” says Dr. Yannick Castanet, Sports Specialist.
Another thing to know: You’ll also get more results if you exercise shorter but more regularly than if you catch up on a big session over the weekend. “It’s better to run 10 minutes every day than an hour on Sundays,” explains Lucile Woodward. And after a while we start running 12 minutes, then 15, 20… And that’s great. “Even if, as Yannick Castanet suggests, “jogging for two hours at the weekend is still better than doing nothing at all”.
While it’s not always easy to make space in your schedule, “you can always find time to spend even 20 minutes,” the doctor points out.
Fight against sedentary lifestyle
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week, which is 22 minutes per day. “And there’s this belief that you have to suffer for those minutes. But in reality you can walk, climb, do gentle muscle strengthening… And 22 minutes goes by quickly,” explains Lucile Woodward.
And those few minutes can be divided. “You can climb stairs, stop a subway stop early in the morning to walk, and finish off with some ab exercises in the evening,” she assures. The goal is to be slightly out of breath but still be able to speak.
The two sports professionals agree that ideally you should do an hour of exercise per day with one stretching unit per week. But it is an ideal. Today it’s more about warning against a sedentary lifestyle – or spending a significant part of the day sitting or lying down. “It’s a scourge and has tremendous health implications,” says Lucile Woodward.
If you spend your days in front of the screen, “use your break from work to go for a walk,” play outside with your kids, or try “gentle exercise like yoga,” the coach advises.
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