Its child's play! Exercising like children is better for you than adult fitness
Last updated 11/5/2008 9:15:23 AM
Exercising like children is better for you than adult fitness
Exercising like a child could be more beneficial to your health than traditionally adult activities like jogging, new research has revealed.
Experts at the University of Glamorgan have found that short sharp sprints lasting up to 30 seconds could be as good as, or better than, the Government's current guidelines to do up to five sessions of an hour's exercise a week.
The exercise patterns mirror those of children in the playground who do not run long distances during school breaks but are active for only very short periods.
Professor Julien Baker said six 30-second sprints three times a week can have the same health and weight-loss benefits as jogging or cycling for up to 45 minutes several times a week.
The research could make exercising more attractive, especially as many believe they do not have time to meet the current exercise recommendations.
Prof Baker said: "The beauty of this is that this can be done anywhere – in the street or on a pavement – and you do not need to have sophisticated equipment or buy expensive trainers and kit. Because of the energy expended it will also be good for weight management."
The University of Glamorgan research, which has been carried out over several years, compared short high-intensity sprints to longer endurance training, such as cycling or jogging.
Prof Baker said that a 30-metre to 60-metre sprint, lasting up to 30 seconds, with four-minute rest periods in between would be beneficial.
"High intensity programmes are much easier to administer and more practical in terms of adherence," he explained.
"For children who are overweight or obese, it may be better to put them on an intermittent programme of high-intensity exercise for a short period."
Iwan Thomas, an Olympic silver medallist and former 400m European champion, said: "In the winter the general rule for my training is conditioning work with very short recovery – we will do eight 200m runs with two minutes recovery, which is very hard work."
"Short bursts of sprinting with very short recoveries are harder but they do get you fitter. I have always thought that long training sessions at low intensity are not as good as high- tempo sessions with short recoveries – but you must warm up properly."