The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Ten-minute workouts lure time-challenged exercisers Posted: 24 Sep 2012 08:42 AM PDT  File photo shows a general view of a gym. Experts say that short bursts of activity, sometimes called exercise snacking, can give a good workout too because of the intensity. – Reuters pic Experts say what these short bursts of activity, sometimes called exercise snacking, lack in duration they can make up for in intensity. "You can get a good enough workout that can make real metabolic changes to your body," said Liz Neporent, co-author of "The Thin in 10 Weight-Loss Plan" along with fitness instructor Jessica Smith. "It can help you lose weight, reduce stress and basically give you all the benefits that we know come from exercise." The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that most adults to engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. But multiple shorter sessions of at least 10 minutes are acceptable and even people unable to meet the minimums still benefit from some activity, according to ACSM. Neporent, who writes on health and fitness, said mainstream science is finding that if you increase intensity you can decrease time. That approach can work for a lot of people, she said, because poll after poll has shown that the Number One objection to not getting a workout is time. "The typical recommendation is to do 30 minutes, so if we told you that you could do 10 minutes at a time, you might actually have a better shot at getting it done," she said. To make the most of 10 minutes, Neporent and Smith favor a hybrid of cardio and strength exercises. "You want to get in something that's heart-healthy, and something that's good for your muscles and bones," Neporent said. "A lot of our workouts (in the book) tend to be circuit-weighted to maximise time." They also promote the 10-minute walk; the meal plan section extends the theme with recipes that take 10 minutes or less to prepare. MIDDLE-AGED PERILS Amy Dixon, creator of the "Give Me 10" DVD series of 10-minute workouts, said studies show shorter, but more consistent, workouts can yield dramatic results. "If I had 10 minutes I would do fairly intense strength training, total body workouts with dumbbells or kettle bells interspersed with cardio intervals like jumping jacks," said Dixon, who is Group Fitness Manager at an Equinox fitness center in Santa Monica, California. She's seen too many people spend 60 minutes just going through the motions of a cardiovascular workout. "If you're reading a magazine," she said, "you're not working out." Dr Carl Foster, a professor in the exercise and sports science department at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said there are unique advantages to high-intensity training for the young and the fit. "There are things you gain that you can't get from low-intensity workouts because you're using muscle fibres that are sedentary in a walk," he said. For the middle-aged or older, high-intensity exercise has its perils. "Somewhere around age 45 for men and 55 for women, you worry about the dark side of exercise," he said. "Studies are clear that when people have catastrophes, such as heart attacks, they are almost always related to inappropriately high-intensity exercise." Sometimes high-intensity routines are just too uncomfortable to be habit-forming, he said. "Yes it can be done. You can do the work in 10 minutes but then it takes you 40 minutes to recover." Foster predicts the focus on high-intensity interval training will wane. "It will be like seasoning in food: you want to feel like an athlete, so let's do some of it in the middle of the workout," he said. Before you leap into high-intensity training, he urges, be sure to have at least six months of normal training behind you. Then gradually add five or 10 seconds that are a little harder. The biggest risk is that people who've been sedentary will suddenly decide to get in shape with high-intensity training. "For middle-aged and older people, high-intensity training can be a trap that leads to health problems," Foster said. "The people who are moderately active on a routine basis are the people who don't get heart attacks." – Reuters |
| America’s hidden unemployed: Too discouraged to count Posted: 24 Sep 2012 07:29 AM PDT  Americans line up for an interview at a job fair in Washington in this file photo. Economists, analysing government data, estimate about four million fewer people are in the labour force than in December 2007, primarily due to a lack of jobs rather than the normal aging of America's population. – Reuters pic With a Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty University in Virginia, majoring in government service and history, McCune applied for jobs at the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. But after a long hunt that yielded only two interviews, the 26-year-old threw in the towel last fall, joining millions of frustrated Americans who have given up looking for work. "There's nothing out there and there probably won't be anything for a while," said McCune, from New Concord, Ohio. He has moved back home to live with his parents, who are helping him pay off his college debt of about US$20,000 (RM61,444). "I don't like it, it's embarrassing. I don't want to be a burden to my parents," said McCune, adding that he felt like a high school dropout. Economists, analysing government data, estimate about four million fewer people are in the labour force than in December 2007, primarily due to a lack of jobs rather than the normal aging of America's population. The size of the shift underscores the severity of the jobs crisis. If all those so-called discouraged jobseekers had remained in the labour force, August's jobless rate of 8.1 per cent would have been 10.5 per cent. The jobs crisis spurred the Federal Reserve last week to launch a new bond-buying programme and promise to keep it running until the labour market improves. It also poses a challenge to President Barack Obama's re-election bid. The labour force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one has fallen by an unprecedented 2.5 percentage points since December 2007, slumping to a 31-year low of 63.5 per cent. "We never had a drop like that before in other recessions. The economy is worse off than people realize when people just look at the unemployment rate," said Keith Hall, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. The participation rate would be expected to hold pretty much steady if the economy was growing at a normal pace. Only about a third of the drop in the participation rate is believed to be the result of the aging US population. SLOW PROGRESS The economy lost 8.7 million jobs in the 2007-09 recession and has so far recouped a little more than half of them. Economists say jobs growth of around 125,000 per month is normally needed just to hold the jobless rate steady. Given the likelihood that Americans will flood back into the labour market when the recovery gains traction, a pace twice that strong would be needed over a sustained period to make progress reducing the unemployment rate. Last month, employers created just 96,000 jobs. Roslyn Swan lost her job in 2007 as a portfolio associate at a financial firm in New York. After submitting hundreds of applications, the 44-year-old is taking a break. "Maybe after the elections," Swan said of her next attempt to get work. "I know that I will be employed again. I don't know when, but I know it will happen." Americans of all ages are leaving the workforce, but the problem is most acute in the 20-24 age group, where the participation rate has plunged by 4.4 percentage points since December 2007. Many Americans typically start working in their teens, taking part-time jobs after school and over summer vacations, a tradition that is supposed to instill a work ethic. With many failing to secure jobs after graduating from high school and college, analysts worry about US competitiveness. "Because of delays to their career, the skills set accumulation that normally happens in the first or third job is not happening," said Paul Conway, president of Generation Opportunity in Washington, a non-profit, non-partisan organisation that works with 18- to 29-year-olds on economic issues. TOUGH ON YOUNG WORKERS Last month, the proportion of 20- to 24-year-olds in the labour force was its lowest since 1972. Other age categories are faring little better. The 25-54 age group has seen a decline of 1.8 percentage points since December 2007. Some, like 27-year-old Casey Potts, have gone back to school. She is studying nursing in Kentucky after losing her medical sales job. "If I had stayed in medical sales, I would be job searching now," said Potts. But separate surveys by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Generation Opportunity found little evidence that young people were going back to school when unable to land a job. One deterrent is the rising cost of education and record levels of student debt. About two-thirds of 2012 college graduates left school in debt, owing on average US$28,700 in student loans, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org. "Young people dropping out of the labour force to go back to school would be a silver lining if it were true," said Heidi Shierholz, a senior EPI economist, adding that enrollment had gradually been increasing for decades. A Generation Opportunity survey published in August showed a third of young people were putting off additional training and post-graduate studies because of the sour economy. "This is significant. People are making the decision to put those off because the assurance of a return to investment is not there," said the non-profit's Conway, a veteran observer of the labour market as a former Department of Labor chief of staff. He said his organisation found that young people were doing unpaid internships at nonprofit groups and businesses to prevent their skills from atrophying. Others were joining the military. Some economists say the participation rate does not paint a true picture because people find work in the informal sector, ranging from legal activities such as child care to crime in some cases. "People are picking a buck here and there and not being reported in anybody's payroll," said Patrick O'Keefe, head of economic research at J.H. Cohn in Roseland, New Jersey. "They will say they are not doing anything, even as they have a job and are being paid under the table," said O'Keefe, a former deputy assistant secretary at the Labor Department. "We do not know to what extent that is going on." – Reuters |
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