In your workout routine, dialing up the intensity can look like a lot of things: adding a mile to your morning run, tacking one more circuit
In your workout routine, dialing up the intensity can look like a lot of things: adding a mile to your morning run, tacking one more circuit to your HIIT session, choosing extra chaturanga (a yoga push-up) or two in your to demand yoga class. No matter how you want to raise the ante on your sweat routine, a recent study suggests it's worth it. Not only because high-intensity workouts are good for your heart health (we already know that!), but also because they may simply increase your longevity.
The brand-new U.K. research ... Looked at approximately 100,000 Biobank participants with a mean age and sex of 62—56 percent female. Based on their exercise intensities, the scientists grouped the subjects into various categories, then tracked the health of the participants over time through their smartwatches (a mean of 3.1 years). The Outcome? Those with a moderate or intense physical activity energy expenditure (or PAEE which dictates the intensity of the workout) tended to have lower mortality rates compared to those in the other profiles. In other words, studies have found that exercises of higher intensity have contributed to a longer, healthier life.
"Our findings indicate that having more activity of some intensity is helpful, but it is still easier to expend those calories on more intense exercise," Tessa Strain, Ph.D., lead research told the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom. "It is by slowly increasing the amount of physical activity that we do every day that we can enhance our future health." Results also suggest that exercise levels can have a cumulative impact and that even lighter exercises – such as yoga, barrel, or Pilates floor – that are continued over time may minimize the mortality risk.
You have too many choices when you're in the market for ways to increase your strength. Trainer Charlee Atkins previously told us that you should divvy up your week to have three days of strength training, two days of exercise, one day of yoga and one day of rest — and that model is just the one you need to look at when you start the project of adding a little more oomph to your workouts at home. Below is a video that intensifies any form of workout.
Do not go too hard, but consider mixing this week in one of these exercises to lift your heart rate, sweat a little more, or work your muscles just a little bit more than normal.
3 Workouts to improve your exercise intensity — no matter what you want
Use this 15-minute treadmill workout to sprint a little faster
This tread work may only last for 15 minutes, but it will help you build your endurance so you can run a long way, much longer. In this run (which you might do outdoors if you don't have access to a treadmill), Nike Run Coach Jes Woods guides you through intervals that drive you through the rates of effort as the run progresses. You're going to hit your 90 percent by the end — and that's pretty intense, right?
Try this 25-minute HIIT cardio to practice high-intensity interval training
With this workout, Barry's trainer Sashah Handal takes out all stops that will send you heart racing in a 25-minute span that is shorter than most of your Zoom meetings. Just grab your mat and sweat yourself ready. Look forward to shouldering plank strokes, lung jumping, and (so many) squats.
Try this core-centered flow to improve Yoga
Val Verdier, New York City headteacher of Modo Yoga has a talent for classes that feel restorative and intense at once — and that flow is no exception. During this challenging sequence of asanas (that is Sanskrit for poses) you should test your heart and roll up your mat feeling stronger ... and much sweatier.
COMMENTS