Basic Pursuits

Here are five things you can do to enhance the results of your workout. These techniques cost little or nothing, they are all perfectly legal and they are based on scientific observation.

Cool the muscles

As an appropriate followup to our exploration of rest yesterday, here is an article from describing the recuperation needs of horses.

"Equine muscle glycogen stores require sufficient time for post-exercise repletion. Repletion cannot be hastened in any way other than rest."

The article is based on work done by veteranarians in Finland.

For people who are lifetime exercisers, their most important characteristic is consistency. They attain consistency because the exercise makes them feel good. Ask a hundred of these folks why they exercise, the first thing you'll hear from most is, "because it makes me feel good."

I ran across this piece late last week. It reports on a study done in Japan which concludes that exercise burns fat more efficiently when there is a intervening rest period. In this case, 30 mins. of exercise followed by 20 mins. of rest followed by 30 mins. of exercise.

Being a great believer in not pushing too hard, I rejoiced inn the notion that more is accomplished (at least more fat burning) by resting than by just pushing through.