Superb new way to beat the blues, winter or not…..

Today's post: Tuesday, 1-22-2008

Researchers have found that exercising regularly has all kinds of incredible benefits including turning off or turning down the blues or even moderate depression.

And, last Friday’s health article in the Early to Rise email has really powerful good news.

Doing even a few minutes almost every day of exercise where you periodically do several shorter bursts of considerably more vigorous or faster exercise works best to make you feel better.

Here’s why that’s such incredibly good news.

Walking for an hour is great exercise; but few people can manage to take the time to do that more often than once or twice a week. And, if you are depressed or feeling blue & find the walk boring, in my experience, that tends to blunt any positive effects on your mood.

But what this new finding means is that if you would like to feel a bit better, you can get the job done & done well in just 5 or 10 minutes.

You benefit 3 ways.

1. Most people can fit 5 minutes into their morning or take a 5 minute break later in the day & many can manage 10 minutes as well. That makes it doable.

2. When you have to focus mentally to manage the intensity or speed of your exercise & do bursts of faster or more vigorous exercise alternated with easier or slower & repeat several times, it’s easy to STOP focusing on how you feel or any reasons you have to feel bad. That alone temporarily shuts off feeling bad.

You brain has to help you set up & do moderately easy for a bit & then pretty hard or fast for a shorter time & repeat several times or do moderately easy for a bit & then pretty hard or fast for a shorter time & then a brief rest to recover & repeat several times. That means your mind is too busy to feel bad.

I’ve also noticed that this kind of exercise tends to make you feel able & capable when you do it. And, it tends to get your heart rate up without over-straining yourself since you get to go slower or take a few seconds break every so often.

3. Once you experience that this does help you feel better, you realize that you can & will feel better at least some in just a few minutes every time you do this kind of exercise.

That’s a nice combination indeed !!

Even better, separate research shows that doing this kind of exercise gets you into good aerobic shape faster than steady pace exercise; AND it also works better for fat loss than steady pace exercise.

Here’s where I found this new info myself that this kind of exercise also works better to make you feel better & brighten your mood.:

It was in last Friday’s, 1-21-2008, Early to Rise email & on their website.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

“Does Feeling Good Make You Exercise?

By Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., CNS

It's been established that exercise can enhance your mood. But does being in a good mood increase the likelihood that you'll exercise in the first place?

Researchers at Bowling Green University designed a study to answer that question. Thirty-six obese participants in a behavioral weight-loss program recorded their morning, evening, and pre- and post-exercise moods. They also recorded the type, duration, and intensity of their exercise. The findings were clear. People who recorded better moods in the morning were more likely to exercise that day.

If you find yourself feeling positive in the morning, grab the opportunity to exercise right then. It'll make you feel better for the rest of the day.

And while you're at it, up the intensity - even if just for 15 seconds every couple of minutes.

The researchers found that those who exercised more frequently and at greater intensity had the greatest increases in mood.

The highest mood ratings came from those participants who exercised the longest and at the highest intensities.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. He's the author of the new book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth. For more information, go to www.jonnybowden.com .”

X * X * X

I put what I see as the two most important statements in bold for emphasis.

Here are my other comments.:

That that does mean that 10 or 15 minutes may do more for you than five.

But, remember these two things. They also found that the people who did this almost every day got the best results. And, it’s a lot easier to do a bit more once you get in the habit of doing even 5 minutes of this kind of exercise than it is to start off doing more. Even more importantly, knowing that even 5 minutes will help & doing it instead of waiting until you have 10 or more minutes makes it enormously more likely you’ll do it at all.

The other thing is that if you make doing it at home first thing in the morning a habit, you’ll start feeling better at the start of each day. You do NOT have to feel tip top to do the exercise when you begin. And, this research shows you will feel better when you are done.

Doing this will make you feel better & in more control of your life. And, separate studies have found that feeling in more control helps people feel better also.

Strength training with even light weights can work well for this. (If you lift a weight you can do 8 or 9 times, the first 3 or 4 are easy. Then, breathe out harder & focus increasing your effort a good bit on the last 3 or 4. That makes those last few seem easier. And, it also makes it easier to get to 10 or 11 times & make progress.

Doing a martial arts pattern exercise routine also can work well. Simply vary between moderately slow trying to do the form really well with just doing it as fast as you can for a few seconds once you know the patterns reasonably well.

You can also do this with walking. Simply walk at a normal pace for two minutes & then walk as fast as you can for 15 to 30 seconds. Then repeat the process for a total of 5 minutes (once more) or do four of these if you have 10 minutes, etc.

Another way is to use squats or knee bends as long as you only go down to where your thighs are parallel to the ground. (Going farther is too hard on your knees.) Because this one uses gravity, if you do 20 at moderate speed & then 7 really fast & repeat (with short rest breaks if you need them at first), you can begin to burn a good bit of calories in just 5 minutes.

Important note, with any of these be sure to start a little easier than your hardest effort until you have been doing the exercise for a couple of weeks.

And, if you get out of breath, stop for 5 or 10 seconds before you do the next round.

It’s safer that way. And, it also makes it easier to keep doing since you perceive that your effort is more under your control; & it doesn’t feel as hard. Paradoxically, that means you’ll actually make the fastest progress that way.

Lastly, in case you missed it in our earlier post, be sure to take at least 2,000 iu of vitamin D3 each day in the winter or if you rarely go outside in the summer. That has now been shown to turn off the winter blues as well as the light therapy or better.

Why not do both taking the vitamin D3 AND this kind of exercise? The research suggests strongly you’ll feel a lot better if you do.