DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: How do you train your biceps in just three seconds a day? –

We all know how important exercise is, but many of us struggle to find time or motivation.

So what is the least you can do and still see visible changes? Twenty minutes a day? Ten minutes? A minute? How about three seconds?

Yes, as unusual as it may sound (and I must admit I was surprised when I first read the study), a recent study found that doing resistance exercises for just three seconds a day is an exercise used to lift or pull something using the muscles. resistance, such as weights, can greatly increase strength.

In the study, published last month in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, Japanese and Australian researchers asked 39 healthy volunteers to participate in an unusual exercise program that involved training the biceps in the arm.

A group with their elbows at the same level had to lift a lever against the resistance; a second group had to hold the lever up while trying to pull it down with a weight; a third group had to lower the lever against the resistance.

They measured arm strength at the start of the study and then after performing this odd resistance exercise five days a week for four weeks. He was asked not to do any other upper body exercise.

At the end of the study, all three groups were stronger, but the participants with the most impressive improvements were those who were asked to lower the arm slowly against resistance.

They improved arm strength by an average of 10%. Yet they had only lifted weights for one minute during that month.

One of the researchers, Professor Ken Nosaka, sports scientist at Edith Cowan University in Australia, explains: “Many people think you should devote a lot of time to sports, but you don’t. Short and good workouts can still be good for your body, and every muscle contraction is important”.

You can achieve the same effect at home with a weight of 5 kg. Put your elbow on the table, slowly lift it off the surface and lower it slowly. Do this once and then switch to the other arm. Job done.

Researchers suggest that the improvements may be due to the “training effect”, in other words, your body gets used to this movement, so you push yourself harder when your strength is later tested.

However, as with other types of short but intense exercise, it’s also possible that something is going on with the muscle itself. I first encountered evidence of the benefits of short-term exercise in 2011 when I made a documentary with Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at Loughborough University. He introduced me to the pleasures of something called HIIT – high-intensity interval training.

He said that with just three minutes of vigorous exercise a week, I would reap many of the most important benefits of exercise, and that after four weeks I would see significant changes in my lung strength and blood sugar levels.

It seemed very unlikely, but I tried: Sitting on an exercise bike, warming up for a minute, then pedaling like crazy for 20 seconds, against some serious resistance (like trying to pedal while accelerating down a steep slope).

Dr. Michael Mosley (pictured) writes: “I tried—”it required sitting on an exercise bike, warming up for a minute, then pedaling like crazy for 20 seconds against some serious resistance”

Twenty seconds of that and I could really feel it. Then I had to continue pedaling smoothly for a few minutes before getting another 20-second sprint. Then pedal for one more minute for the final 20-second sprint.

I did this three times a week, and after a month the results were impressive: my insulin sensitivity (a measure of how well your body can handle blood sugar) had increased by about 25 percent, while my aerobic capacity (an indicator of how strong your heart and lungs were). his) was more than 10% better than his previous work.

Since then, HIIT has become popular in gyms and homes across the country, and surprisingly, time has continued to decrease.

Professor Niels Vollaard, a sports scientist at the University of Stirling, showed similar benefits by doing just two 20-second bursts instead of three. So what’s going on?

Professor Vollaard told me that in the first 20-second sprint, your body breaks down the sugar stored in the muscles, filling the muscles with energy. This triggers a series of reactions, including the release of “signaling molecules” into the blood.

Your second sprint activates these signaling molecules and helps stimulate muscle growth, including heart muscle.

In the long run, this leads to great improvements in aerobic fitness.

Studies in Professor Vollaard’s lab have shown that performing this ultra-short HIIT workout three times a week can result in improvements similar to a less intense 45-minute workout.

“With either approach,” he told me, “you see a 10 percent improvement in aerobic fitness, which is very satisfying. The difference is that our HIIT regimen saves a lot of time.’

If you don’t have an adjustable resistance exercise bike, you can still HIIT while cycling up a hill (it’s a steep incline near our house, so I do a few 20-second bursts on the way to the grocery store).

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bike ride – you could try sprinting for 20 seconds while jogging or doing a few sprints while swimming.

Speeding up your gait for short bursts can also help. At its core, it’s about challenging yourself, no matter what your options are.

Of course, as with any type of exercise, start slowly and talk to your doctor before you start if you have any concerns about your health.

There is more information on my website fast-esercises.com.

whello you have to eat Violet tomato

As a scientist, I am a fan of GM foods, although I know some people consider them Frankenfoods.

So I’ve read with interest a purple tomato that will soon go on sale in the US, and once approved, it’s likely to find its way here.

This tomato was created in 2008 by a team from the John Innes Center in England. It has been genetically engineered to contain about ten times more anthocyanins, compounds with potent antioxidant effects (and what gives fruits and vegetables their red-purple colour).

Dr. A purple tomato was “produced in 2008 by a team from the John Innes Center in England,” Mosley said. picture used

A diet rich in anthocyanins can neutralize free radicals, which are molecules that circulate rapidly throughout the body and damage cells. Tomatoes with higher anthocyanin content should also last longer, resulting in less food wasted.

If you prefer your anthocyanins from more traditional sources, there are high concentrations in blueberries, black currants, cranberries, cherries and red cabbage.

‘Dracula’ hemotherapy to rejuvenate the brain

Count Dracula is one of my favorite literary villains, feeding on human blood and transforming from a gray-haired old man into a much younger and stronger being.

And it’s not pure fantasy: more recently, researchers have shown that taking blood from younger mice and giving it to older mice can actually go back in time.

A few years ago, a biologist at the University of California, Dr. I met Saul Villeda. labyrinth).

Even more impressive, when the brain cells of an old mouse were soaked with young blood, they began to develop new connections.

And now we know, thanks to a recent study at the University of Pittsburgh that suggests the magic ingredient may be messenger RNA (mRNA), the same substance that underlies many of our new Covid vaccines.

“More recently, researchers have shown that taking blood from younger mice and giving it to older mice can actually go back in time,” writes Dr. Mosley. picture used

With a vaccine, mRNA tells your body to produce proteins that resemble the spikes of the Covid virus; this triggers an immune response to protect you from infection.

In older mice, young blood mRNA appears to terminate in the muscles and brain, instructing them to regenerate.

We’re just at the beginning and won’t be asking my children for blood anytime soon, but these findings could lead to new treatments for stroke and dementia.

And that definitely shows that even though he wrote Dracula 125 years ago, Bram Stoker is really about something.