Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Going through the motions: can it make a difference?

demotivational posters - A PICTURE BOOK OF LOUIS BRAILLE
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Study du jour: Biking for as little as five minutes a day can help women minimize weight gain as they enter middle age, especially if they're overweight to begin with, a new study suggests.

I don't usually pay too much attention to studies. I mean, if you wait a few minutes another study will usually come along to contradict it. But my attention & respect are attracted by numbers.

This study followed more than 18,000 premenopausal women between the ages of 25 and 42 for 16 years. During that time, the women gained an average of about 20.5 pounds.
Women who started biking for just five minutes a day gained about 1.5 fewer pounds over the course of the study than similar women who didn't take up biking, the researchers found. Women who increased their daily biking by 30 minutes during the study kept even more weight off, gaining about 3.5 fewer pounds than those whose biking habits stayed the same.

Well, it's worth a try. The knees are still bothering me, whether sitting or standing. However, when I tried the exercise cycle at zero resistance, just going through the range of motion with no pressure at all, there was no pain at all. Very strange. If the pain isn't any worse tomorrow, then at least I'll know that I found a way to get the blood pumping without increasing the pain level.


Exercise du jour: 10 minutes on the exercise cycle

Done! The knees hurt /before/ I got on the cycle, and the knees hurt now that I've gotten off -- but the knees didn't have a problem with going through the motions of cycling. Weird, but what the hell. Maybe I should do more zero-resistance workouts. Whatever works.

7 comments:

Roxie said...

Interesting study....and interesting knees....I don't have a clue as to why they are behaving that way, but as you say, whatever works.

Happy Wednesday! (It is Wednesday, right?)

messymimi said...

All movement helps, it all counts.

And please see a doctor if the pain persists. You will regret it if you permanently damage something.

JBM said...

Once you get comfortable spin your legs faster and or up the resistance for an even better workout

carpeviam said...

And sadly, I can't tell you how many times I've read that book to my elementary students. True story.

janice said...

I wonder if you get the same effects swimming. Being summer time, I would much rather go for a 5 minute swim than a 5 minute bike ride.

As you said, whatever works.

Note: It is summer so fresh fruits are in season again!!!

Anonymous said...

Been lurking for a while; now, delurking to recommend the miracle drug: ice.
Really. I did my first 1/2 marathon last saturday & iced my knees & shins after - and OMG what a great difference it made. Personally, I prefer to stay kinda warm, so cuddling an ice pack isn't my idea of fun. But I've not had any complications since running that far -- and I've got old joints that weren't sure we could do even a half marathon. (I'd trained with up to 11 miles before that.)
I still grab the ice if my knees or shins are unhappy & rather than making me cold & stiff, it soothes things and I can move better.
Good luck!
And thanks for your blog-couragement. I appreciate reading about someone else also struggling with excercise, motivation, and such.

janice said...

I missed the book last time. However, as a reader and teacher of braille, that is really an awesome book!