Keep up but take the low road

You don’t need HIIT to get fit. Try this instead, writes Carolee Walker

SOMETIMES it seems that all I hear about is the magic of high-intensity interval training (Hiit). This protocol alternates short periods of intense exercise with longer periods of moderate recovery periods (think sprinting 30 seconds, then walking or jogging at an easy pace for one minute, and repeating for about 20 minutes in total) and promises results in as little time as possible.

But the concept can be daunting for anyone who is just starting a workout programme, recovering from an injury or surgery, or packing a little more weight than what is ideal.

So I’m here to preach the gospel of Liss: low-intensity steady state.

Liss exercise is any repetitive motion for 30 to 45 minutes at 50-60% of your maximum heart rate (MHR), according to sports medicine specialist and physical therapist Kevin Mcguinness, who practices at Washington Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. Typically, this refers to such activities as walking, swimming or even jogging or biking at an easy pace.

“Liss is any activity that gets your heart rate up just a little and for a longer period,” Mcguinness says. If it sounds familiar, that’s not surprising:

Before the recent popularity of Hiit, he says, lowintensity exercise was simply called “cardio”.

Mcguinness says in addition to improving your mood and cognition and helping you control your blood sugar, “Liss is one of the best ways to maintain a level of fitness”.

Assuming your physician has approved your fitness plan, here’s how to practise Liss exercise. Calculate your MHR by subtracting your age from the number 220. For example, if you are 49 years old, your MHR will be about 171 beats a minute.

To stay within the 50-60% range, you need to keep your

MHR between 85 and 115bpm, Mcguinness says.

There are plenty of devices that help you monitor your heart rate, but you can also do this by taking your pulse and counting the beats for 60 seconds (or for 15 seconds and multiplying by four). Or see if you can hold your end of a conversation comfortably. If you can, you’re working within the optimal range.

Liss is a great option for firsttime exercisers, Mcguinness says, especially those who might be intimidated or limited in their ability to engage in higherintensity exercise.

“Whether it’s a more approachable form of exercise or whether weight makes exercise too painful to complete regularly, low-intensity exercise is a much friendlier, easier-to-try version of cardiovascular exercise for the uninitiated,” he says.

Because it is associated with fewer injuries, Liss is particularly appropriate for individuals recovering from an injury that affects a weight-bearing part of the body, such as an ankle, knee or hip, according to Mcguinness.

“Getting your heart rate up again and reintroducing some of the benefits of exercise without the potential pitfalls and risks that come with higher-intensity exercise make Liss an ideal option for people recovering from injuries,” he says.

It can also be the answer for people recovering from surgery. When her oral surgeon told Liza Himmelman of Chevy Chase, Maryland, that she would need to stop exercising for at least two weeks after a surgical procedure, she panicked.

She didn’t want to give up the progress she had made through her fitness routine: heavy weightlifting two days a week with a trainer; lighter, self-guided weightlifting two other days; and a once-a-week spinning class.

“I want to maintain my health, which took me six months to get,” the 49-year-old told me. “At my age, I can’t take two weeks off.”

Liza and were I commiserating about this because I haven’t been able to run since March 11, when I developed plantar fasciitis during a half-marathon. It’s a condition that can take weeks, if not months, to heal and, unlike with some injuries, you cannot run, no matter how easy, through your rehabilitation. I worried that in addition to losing my level of fitness, I’d put on weight.

The trainer we share talked up the benefits of Liss for both of us. For me, he designed Liss walking workouts. For Liza, he created a lifting plan that wouldn’t unduly raise her heart rate. This approach involved lifting lighter weights, lifting more slowly and taking more time between sets.

Liss isn’t helpful for only neophyte and recovering fitness buffs, though, says Mcguinness. It has a place in the exercise programme of nearly everyone, including higher-level athletes, who may use a Liss day or “recovery day” to tone down the mileage and the intensity to take pressure off the joints but still keep moving to make sure they don’t stiffen up.

Varying the level of intensity in any exercise programme can help you avoid burnout and offer adequate time to recover while still being active, Mcguinness says.

But in Liss, as in any exercise programme, it’s also important to vary the stimulus. One of the physiological adaptations of exercise is that the body becomes more energy-efficient and might not burn as many calories to do the same amount of exercise after the body adapts to it.

“If you go out for a one-hour walk five days a week, always on flat ground and never change the pace, eventually that exercise is going to be less useful than it used to be,” says Mcguinness.

He recommends you consider changing that one hour of walking to 40 minutes of easy bicycle riding around the neighbourhood. Or you could change the distance or intensity by varying it within the confines of Liss, to retain your level of fitness.

In my case, for example, that includes walking the hills in my neighbourhood until I can run.

As Mcguinness puts it,

“there’s value in staying at a good place where you can exercise comfortably, maintain your body composition and not hurt yourself ”. – The Washington Post

Walker is a wellness blogger and the author of Getting My Bounce Back: How I Got Fit, Healthier, and Happier (And You Can, Too).