We all know exercise is imperative for a healthy body and better quality of life, but to this day there are still questions to be answered about how best to move one's body. Of course, I write this as if I don't count walking from my desk to the fridge and back again as my daily exercise.
From HIIT to LISS to weights to cardio and everything in between, there is plenty of debate within the fitness community and among researchers regarding the most effective exercises or how to get the most out of your workouts.
Now, new findings by Australian researchers indicate that little and often is perhaps the best approach for most people, suggesting a little exercise each day is more beneficial than more intensive workouts performed less often.
The latest research indicates a little bit of activity each day could be more effective for gaining muscle strength, suggesting that depending on the person's goals, longer and more rigorous workouts that are only manageable once or twice a week may not always be the best approach for improved strength.
Conducted by researchers at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia in collaboration with Japan's Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University, the four-week training study had three groups of participants performing an arm resistance exercise, with changes in muscle strength and thickness measured and compared.
According to the study, which was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, the exercise consisted of "maximal voluntary eccentric bicep contractions", performed on a machine which measures muscle strength in each contraction a person would do at the gym.
An eccentric contraction is when the muscle is lengthening; in this case, like lowering a heavy dumbbell in a bicep curl.
Two groups performed 30 contractions per week, with one group - the 6x5 group - doing six contractions a day for five days a week. The other group - 30x1 - crammed all 30 repetitions into a single day, once a week. Another group only performed six contractions one day a week.
After four weeks, the group performing 30 contractions in a single day did not show any increase in strength, although muscle thickness - an indicator of increase in muscle size - increased by 5.8 percent.
The study found that the group doing six contractions once a week did not see any changes in muscle strength or thickness.
However, the 6x5 group saw significant increases in strength - more than 10 percent - with an increase in thickness similar to the 30x1 group.
Frequency, not volume
Importantly, the increase in muscle strength of the 6x5 group was similar to the group in a previous study that performed only one three-second maximal eccentric contraction per day, five days a week for four weeks.
ECU Exercise and Sports Science Professor Ken Nosaka said these studies continue to suggest that very manageable amounts of exercise performed regularly can make a real difference in people's strength.
"People think they have to do a lengthy session of resistance training in the gym, but that's not the case," Prof Nosaka said. "Just lowering a heavy dumbbell slowly once or six times a day is enough."
While the study required participants to exert maximum effort, early findings from current, ongoing research indicated similar results can be achieved without needing to push as hard as possible.
"We only used the bicep curl exercise in this study, but we believe this would be the case for other muscles also, at least to some extent," he said.
"Muscle strength is important to our health. This could help prevent a decrease in muscle mass and strength with ageing.
"A decrease in muscle mass is a cause of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, dementia, plus musculoskeletal problems such as osteoporosis."
Rest up
It's not yet known precisely why the body responds better to resistance exercises with eccentric contractions in smaller doses, rather than bigger loads less frequently.
Prof Nosaka said it may relate to how often the brain is asked to make a muscle perform in a particular manner. However, he stressed the importance of rest in any exercise regimen.
"In this study, the 6x5 group had two days off per week," he said.
"Muscle adaptations occur when we are resting; if someone was able to somehow train 24 hours a day, there would actually be no improvement at all.
"Muscles need rest to improve their strength and their muscle mass, but muscles appear to like to be stimulated more frequently."
He also noted that if a person is unable to exercise for a period of time, there is no value in trying to "make up" for it with a longer session.
"If someone's sick and can't exercise for a week, that's fine, but it is better to just return to a regular exercise routine when you're feeling better," he said.
Clarifying advice
Current guidelines by the Australian government indicate adults should try to be active each day and perform 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate physical activity per week.
Prof Nosaka said there needs to be more emphasis on the importance of making exercise a daily activity, rather than hitting a weekly goal.
"If you're just going to the gym once a week, it's not as effective as doing a bit of exercise every day at home," he said.
"This research, together with our previous study, suggests the importance of accumulating a small amount of exercise a week, rather than spending hours exercising once a week.
"We need to know that every muscle contraction counts, and it's how regularly you perform them that counts."
'Greater effects by performing a small number of eccentric contractions daily than a larger number of them once a week' was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.
