Combined exercise is more beneficial than strength training or aerobic exercise alone

One of my “active buddy” friends is from a sports science background and he pointed out this study comparing 5 x 30 minute exercise sessions a week. There was a group doing strength training alone, a group doing aerobic exercise alone and a group doing mixed exercise. All the training programmes brought about improvements in cardiovascular risk factors but the combination group had significantly more weight loss and reduction in abdominal fat.

Sugar smart app

The NHS have recently released a “Sugar Smart App” that scans barcodes of common products to show how many cubes of sugar they contain:

Which foods really are healthy?

This summary article in The Telegraph gives an overview of changes in thinking about which foods are good for us. A significant shift in thinking is in the area of low fat foods- I can now enjoy full fat milk without feeling guilty but sadly my perception of bacon sandwiches is changing! There is increased emphasis on the problems associated with sugar in our diet. JJ Virgin has produced a detailed lower sugar diet. The book has some useful explanations but being written for a US audience I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to implement some of the ideas in the UK, particularly in terms of the availability of recommended food items. I’m still on the look out for a “low sugar diet” book that is easy to understand and practical in terms of recommendations for a UK audience.

Updates to the active buddy training programme

In v1.3 there are now 4 sets of pull ups instead of 3 with lower numbers of repetitions. The fitness tests are every 4 weeks during the later stages of training.

I’ve just finished reading “Fast exercise” by Michael Mosley. It’s an introduction to the idea of high intensity training, that we can get substantial benefits from short periods of intense exercise, sometimes without even breaking a sweat. He cites research that shows that short periods of intense exercise can actually produce more benefits than longer periods of sustained exercise. I’m pleased to see that the ideas are generally similar to some of the aspects of the active buddy training programme – interval training, fartlek and key strength training exercises such as the plank. Based on the ideas in the book I think you could still get substantial benefit from a shorter training programme than the 3 hours a week that I recommended.

Fast exercise – the simple secret of high intensity training by Dr Michael Mosley

“Very brief exercise”

As GPs we talk about “very brief interventions” eg a way of briefly discussing smoking. How about this for “very brief exercise”…?

On days when you are really pushed for time why not try these ideas:

• Do as many pushups as you can in 2 minutes when you get up in the morning
• Run up the stairs at work

Physical Activity Infographic

Here’s a great visual summary of the Chief Medical Officer’s advice on exercise which really emphases the positive benefits:

You can also download it as a PDF here:

Physical_activity_infographic

Source : Department of Health

We are 4 weeks into piloting the exercise programmes with a beginner and an intermediate group. We have made some modifications to all the exercise programmes to allow the difficulty to increase more gradually and give time for adaptation before going up to the next level.

There is a new “Beginner 1” Programme for those who aren’t yet ready to run but want to get fit by walking.

I’m a family doctor based in the UK and I’ve become concerned about 2 growing problems all around us – physical inactivity and expanding waistlines. In the last 10 years we have seen a 60% rise in the level of Type 2 diabetes. I’ve met many patients who are now experiencing significant health problems related to these two things.

Most of us know this already but the hard part is changing.

When I was a junior doctor in my mid twenties I was working long hours, commuting and feeling tired. I loved cake and still do now. I married a great cook and before long was starting to put weight on. I remember watching an episode of “Scrubs” where JD hits the age of 30 and decides to do a triathlon. That was my inspiration for entering my first 10K race. Over the last few years I’ve enjoyed working towards different challenges but the thing that really helped my fitness to improve was an “active buddy”. I really enjoyed regular runs with my friend Will. Meeting up early in the morning and exploring the trails around Sheffield together was refreshing and energising. Having to meet someone else was the key thing in getting me out of bed when I didn’t feel like going.

We had lots of adventure training together for a great event in Scotland called “70 wild miles”. When running became more difficult because of knee problems we did more swimming and made lots of progress. This year we really enjoyed the “Great North Swim” in Windermere.

Alongside enjoying exercise and training I’ve come to learn a bit more over the years about nutrition. A significant step for me was starting to understand more about the problem of high levels of sugar in our diet. I was involved in teaching at Sheffield Medical School and one of the subjects we covered was physical activity and obesity.

So I’ve tried to put together some of the things I’ve learned into a training programme and website. I hope you find it useful and that you can find an active buddy to share the journey with.