Is it better to exercise intensely once in a while or a little every day? Experts have long agreed that making daily movement a habit, even if it’s light, leads to better health. Longevity expert Dr Peter Attia also supports this approach.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, the Stanford alumnus, physician and author of Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity spoke about his approach to working out and what he thinks benefits people the most.
He was asked about his own schedule when he said, “I’m in the gym lifting weights 3 days a week. Um, and I’m doing cardio 4 to 6 days a week. I think the biggest challenge people have with exercise is time.”
Is hard exercise better than daily workouts?
When asked to explain, he said, “So, we flip the question. I get asked that question all the time, including from my patients and I always flip it and I say you tell me how much time you can put in this week. Don’t make a lifelong commitment. Just tell me this week. Tell me on Sunday how many hours of exercise can you devote this week? Because this week is different than last week and next week. You might be traveling. You might not be traveling. It might be the kids’ first day back at school. You might have a parent-teacher night. I don’t know what it is. But you you look at your calendar and you say, ‘This week I got 90 minutes.’ Okay? If you have 90 minutes, this is what it’s going to be. If the next week you say, ‘I have 3 hours,’ this is what it’s going to be and it’s going to look a little different. And I think that reframing is helpful when it comes to exercise. This is a very important thing to do.”
A perfect analogy: Save for now and the future
Dr Attia also used the analogy of saving money to better explain his point. “So, you have to save for retirement if you want to be able to retire comfortably. But in the short term, saving money brings you no pleasure. There is literally no joy that comes from saving money until the day you retire and you’ve got this lump sum of money. Conversely, with exercise, you’re doing it so that you have this thing at the end of the rainbow, which is, hey, when I’m in the last decade of my life, I’m going to be really fit. But you also acrew benefit in the short term. And I think that people who don’t exercise just need to be shown that. And the good news is they don’t need to exercise a lot to see that benefit. You take an individual who is completely sedentary and you give them three 30 minute workouts a week, in 6 weeks, they are going to feel like a different person.”
Inspired by Dr Attia’s words? If you are looking for easy exercises you can do while lying down for strong abs, check out these recommendations by a popular fitness coach.
Note to readers: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice.
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