Last week, I wrote about a Canadian study looks at whether you can get in shape by doing some activity 3 times a week at maximal capacity for 20-30 seconds, resting for 4 minutes, and repeating this sequence a total of 4 - 6 times. They're saying it's equivalent to 90 - 120 minutes of aerobic-heart-rate-range exercycling. The idea is that your mitochondria (your cells' furnaces) don't care how you increase their oxygen-use efficiency.
This concept is similar to one that Dr. Richard Bernstein, my Diabetes guru, told me about when I spent a week observing his practice in Mamaroneck NY about 9 years ago. He said to use the "Program your own workout" function on a LifeCycle to start at the highest workout level at which you could do 20 seconds (20 seconds is how long one column of lights last), and drop down one level every 20 seconds. You would essentially be climbing the highest hill for as long as you could.
I'll be a guinea pig - 30 seconds of high-resistance exercycling, 4 minutes of Sudoku or Ken-Ken, and repeat a total of 4 -6 times. I'll use two stopwatches, one set for 30 secs, one for 4 minutes. I'll let you know how I'm progressing. You could do it at the office at lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with the Instride Cycle XL from JC Penney online (an under-the-desk exercycle without wheels that costs $49.99) - you could even catch up on paperwork during the 4 minute cooldowns.
How is this going?
Posted by: Andrea Feeser | 07/18/2009 at 09:42 AM