4-second repeats. Fitness is fast and scientific
Originally Published in The New York Times
Prevent the unhealthy cardio-metabolic effects from prolonged sitting by periodically performing a few 4-second cycling sprints throughout the day1, Being inactive, typically characterized by prolonged sitting, greatly increases your chances of developing cardiovascular disease and dying4. The benefits of activity have been documented scientifically 1,2,3,4 and covered in the recent NY-Times article enclosed. Prolonged sitting (inactivity) is more than the lack of ‘good’ healthy exercise/activity as it appears to produce unique ‘bad’ effects. For example, should exercise normally improve fat metabolism the next day but if you were sitting for prolonged periods and even if you then run for one-hour, those improvements don’t occur 1, 2, 3. We call this phenomenon ‘exercise resistance’. Therefore, even if you exercise daily but also sit for prolonged periods, you are still at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and death because of the inactivity4. Power-Cycle is designed not just for a ‘10 minute-workout’ but also for performing a few 4-second sprints throughout the day to offset the negative health effects of prolonged sitting (inactivity). Performing a few Power-Cycle sprints throughout the day increases the next day’s fat burning 43% and it decreases unhealthy fat in blood by 31%. These periodic brief sessions stimulate your body and mind and are ‘not hard’. The advantage of Power-Cycle is it’s time efficiency and effectiveness because the intensity of exercise is ‘all-out’ but just 4-seconds long. It’s a safe and entertaining way to interrupt prolonged sitting (inactivity) with instant feedback of power output.
References
1) Wolfe AS, Burton HM, Vardarli E, Coyle EF. Hourly 4-s sprints prevent impairment of postprandial fat metabolism from inactivity. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (In Press; October, 2020).
2) Kim I-Y, Park S, Chou T-H, Trombold JR, Coyle EF Prolonged sitting negatively affects the postprandial plasma triglyceride-lowering effect of acute exercise. American Journal of Physiology – Endocrinology and metabolism, 311(5), E891-E898, 2016.
3) Akins JD, Crawford CK, Burton HM, Wolfe AS, Vardarli E, Coyle EF. Inactivity induces resistance to the metabolic benefits of acute exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology 126: 1088-1094, 2019.
4) Ekelund U, Steene-Johannessen J, Brown WJ, Fagerland MW, Owen N, Powell KE, Bauman A, Lee IM. Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? A harmonised meta-analysis of data from more than 1 million men and women. Lancet 388: 1302-1310, 2016.
Two additional New York Times articles about the research on inactivity conducted at the University of Texas at Austin are enclosed.
Links
“Sitting for More Than 13 Hours a Day May Sabotage the Benefits of Exercise “
