An advanced Exercise Prescription lecturer of mine once set the class a task – to write an exercise program for a sedentary middle aged female with some minor injury – I can’t remember exactly what it was, but let’s say a shoulder injury.
Most of my fellow classmates came back with the same (some what typical 3rd year University PE student) answers you would expect: Aerobic activity three times a week for at least 30 minutes, approximately 70% Max Heart Rate etc. Many also included the type of aerobic exercise and even details such as the time of day to complete the exercise.
I often see in books and magazines this kind of prescription. However, how helpful is ‘60-70 of heart rate max’ to your average over weight middle-aged person?
Not very.
What the lecturer put up as his model answer surprised many of us in its simplicity. It looked something like this:
- Mon – ATB
- Tue – rest
- Wed – ATB
- Thu – rest
- Fri – ATB
- Sat – rest
- Sun – rest
And the question on everyone’s lips in the lecture theatre that day: What does ATB stand for, and what was this lesson all about?
We had all come across ATP, but ATB?
ATB stood for ‘around the block’ – meaning a very short walk.
The lesson: Simplicity is the key when starting out in exercise.The best program in the world will not get results if the person does not or cannot do it. If you are starting out from nothing then give this program a go yourself. If you do it successfully, then consider walking around the block twice on Friday the week after.
October 25, 2007 at 8:52 pm |
Your post on ATB (around the block!) is so true – one of my clients did 3 hours of exercise a week, and I knew he needed a 4th hour to get his weight down from dangerous levels. He was convinced he had no more time for that 4th hour.
So I asked him ‘can you go for a 15 min walk at lunchtime every day?’
‘Yes’ he said.
‘There’s your 4th hour of exercise per week!’ i replied.
cheers,
Dom (www.fitness4london.com)