不是所有家务都能健身(2)
文章来源:未知 文章作者:enread 发布时间:2014-11-21 05:23 字体: [ ]  进入论坛
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
迈克尔·莫斯利说过,不是所有人都有机会去健身房,但就算做家务也能健身。这是真的吗?
 
Not everyone can get to the gym - but is it really possible to get fit by just doing one's chores, asks Michael Mosley.
 
You might want to read this article while standing1 up. Or perhaps while strolling around the room. Because the sad fact is that most of us spend far too much time sitting on our bottoms staring at screens.
 
We drive everywhere, avoid the stairs, pack our houses with labour-saving devices and email colleagues rather than walk down the corridor to talk to them. We are a slothful lot and the most common reason given for not doing enough exercise is lack of time.
 
But what is enough exercise? Most health experts recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity2 physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. Any activity will help but it has to be moderate, vigorous or high intensity if you really want to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and obesity3.
 
If you're not that keen on going to the gym or playing sport (and surveys suggest less than 20% of us are), then can you cheat your way to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity by doing regular weekly chores? And if so, which ones count? To find out, the Trust Me I'm a Doctor team recruited eight volunteers, all different shapes and sizes, and fitted them with activity monitors. Then we asked them to do a range of indoor and outdoor tasks.
 
We started with four typical household chores - ironing, vacuuming, dusting and mopping.
 
After our volunteers had completed each activity, exercise scientist Dr Andy Blannin collected their data and graded each on a scale of one to 10, using something called a MET score.
 
MET (Metabolic Equivalent of Task) is a measure of energy consumed per hour. A MET score of one is the sort of energy you would expend4 watching TV.
 
Anything which gets a score above three counts as moderate activity. Above six and you are in the realms of "vigorous".
 
Ironing and dusting, not surprisingly, scored modestly, with MET scores of 1.3 and 1.5 respectively.
 
Vacuuming and mopping, though hardly Olympic sports, scored just above three METs, making them moderate-intensity. While doing these activities our volunteers were burning three times more energy than when they were just sitting.
 
Our volunteers claimed to spend an average of 37 minutes per week on these two tasks, which meant they were already almost a quarter of the way toward the 150-minute target.
 
Then we moved outside, to see how much energy they would burn through doing typical outdoor chores like washing the car, cleaning windows, mowing5 the lawn or planting flowers.
 
Surprisingly enough all these activities broke the magic MET barrier of three. Washing windows required the least effort (3.1), then planting flowers (3.4), washing the car (3.6) and finally mowing the lawn, which racked up a score of 4.4.
 
As Andy pointed6 out, although planting flowers doesn't require a lot of moving around, it does involve using a bit of upper body strength, sufficient to count.
 
Our volunteers said they spent an average of 72 minutes a week doing outdoor activities. So when we combined indoor and outdoor chores their total reached an impressive 109 minutes.
 
Throw in six minutes a day of brisk walking (MET score of 3-4, depending on how briskly you walk) and you can hit the 150 minutes a week without donning the lycra.
 
If you prefer activities that are more intense, there is a range of things that, according to the Compendium7 of Physical Activities, you can do around the garden.
 
Vigorous activity means anything that rates over six METs, and to achieve that you would need to be either "chopping wood and splitting logs" (6.3), "digging, spading, composting" (7.8), or "shovelling8 snow, by hand" (6.0).
 
According to the same source, the only domestic activity that falls into the vigorous range is "scrubbing floors and bathtub" (6.5), though "moving heavy furniture" (5.8) comes close.
 
If you prefer to fill your activity quotient by doing something more enjoyable than cleaning the loo, then dancing - "disco, folk, Irish, line dancing or country" - clocks up an impressive 7.8 METs. Unfortunately sexual activity ("vigorous effort") doesn't count as it comes in at a disappointing 2.8.
 
Whatever you decide to do, it is better to sprinkle your activity across the week rather than trying to get it all over and done with in one go. "We know that some of the health benefits of exercise are quite transient and may only last 12-24 hours," says Andy. "So it would be better to be doing a bit of activity every day rather than condensing it all into a couple of days."#p#分页标题#e#
 
And if you were wondering, one of the best all-round activities seems to be gardening.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
2 intensity 45Ixd     
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
参考例句:
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
3 obesity Dv1ya     
n.肥胖,肥大
参考例句:
  • One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
  • Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。
4 expend Fmwx6     
vt.花费,消费,消耗
参考例句:
  • Don't expend all your time on such a useless job.不要把时间消耗在这种无用的工作上。
  • They expend all their strength in trying to climb out.他们费尽全力想爬出来。
5 mowing 2624de577751cbaf6c6d7c6a554512ef     
n.割草,一次收割量,牧草地v.刈,割( mow的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The lawn needs mowing. 这草坪的草该割了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • "Do you use it for mowing?" “你是用它割草么?” 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说
6 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
7 compendium xXay7     
n.简要,概略
参考例句:
  • The Compendium of Materia Medica has been held in high esteem since it was first published.“本草纲目”问世之后,深受人们的推重。
  • The book is a compendium of their poetry,religion and philosophy.这本书是他们诗歌、宗教和哲学的概略。
8 shovelling 17ef84f3c7eab07ae22ec2c76a2f801f     
v.铲子( shovel的现在分词 );锹;推土机、挖土机等的)铲;铲形部份
参考例句:
  • The workers are shovelling the sand. 工人们正在铲沙子。 来自辞典例句
  • They were shovelling coal up. 他们在铲煤。 来自辞典例句
TAG标签: health exercise chores
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