New ACSM Exercise Intervention Statement

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is one of the foremost resources exercise and health professionals consult for the most current information regarding health and wellness. In the late nineties, the organization released a statement which established that weight maintenance and disease prevention can be achieved by including thirty minutes of moderately intense activity on most days of the week. Since then, many research studies have examined the effectiveness of this amount of exercise on weight loss. Most have found that thirty minutes of activity a day helped to offset some cardiovascular and blood profile (triglycerides, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc.) problems which are associated with inactivity. Even with the support for this data advertised at the gym, in magazines, on television, and even on our cereal boxes, approximately sixty percent of Americans still do not meet this daily thirty minutes of moderate exercise; coincidently (or perhaps not so coincidentally), about the same percentage of the American population is classified as overweight and/or obese. However, even if the majority of the U.S. population suddenly began to fulfill the ACSM physical activity recommendation, this factor would not be the key to effective weight loss, but rather to weight maintenance as well as disease prevention. The earlier exercise prescription gives an average weekly volume of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise, while in the past ten years studies have shown that to get the added benefits of weight loss one must engage in the range of 250-300 minutes of moderate intensity activity. Another addition to the prescription was the addition of more vigorous activity on 2-3 days a week. If exercise is done at a higher level, less actual time is needed in order to burn the same amount of calories and thus lose the same amount of weight. High Intensity Training (HIT) is a fantastic method for diminishing the amount of time dedicated to exercising while still reaping all of the desired health benefits. One hour of HIT training three days a week adds up to 180 minutes per week. Although this is a good start to improving overall physical health, an additional two hours a week are critical in order to achieve desired weight loss. This equates to about 30 minutes of moderate intensity on the other days of the week. In general, the more exercise that is achieved during the week, the greater the health benefits in the short and long term.

By Jacob