Tuesday 9 July 2013

Moderators of the intention-behaviour relationship in the physical activity domain

Posted by speedygeoff on Tuesday, July 09, 2013 with
Monday training at Parliament House - Cathy, Ewen & I ran early, then Andy, Craig, Jen, Mick C, Rae, Susan, Warrick, Garry & Mark (new) participated in the main training session, which was 4 sets of 2 mins (1 min jog), 1 min (30 Seconds jog), 30 seconds, with a 2 minute recovery between each of the sets. Next week we plan to return to the hills.

The more days you skip training, the harder it is to start again.
Obvious? But if you have some niggles and need to take time off, how long should you take off?

Studies in 2011 of circus performers (!) showed that two-day breaks between performances lessened injury rates, but the rates rose again if performers rested for three days or more.

Keeping a tight schedule with exercise matters because when you skip a lot of days in a row the health benefits start to dissipate. At first, this is just a decrease in the positive metabolic aspects, but eventually skipping exercise affects motivation, endurance, and can increase injury.

Endurance also fades if you skip exercising for too many days in a row. The same is true with motivation. In study after study, researchers have found that one of the primary reasons people continue exercising is that they enjoyed yesterday’s exercise or the exertions of the day before; they felt healthier and more physically masterful afterward and wish to relive that sensation. Longer periods between exercise sessions potentially could dull that enthusiasm.

Everybody is familiar with  "motivational flux". If you want to check the research, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22278998. Loving all the long words.