Can exercise help with tiredness?
Researchers from the University of Georgia prove that low-intensity exercise decreases fatigue.
Have you ever just felt tired, and you can’t really explain why? You know it’s not illness, you definitely don’t have a disease, and for the ladies- you shouldn’t be PMSing at the moment! So why this tiredness?
Researchers from the University of Georgia conducted a study amongst people who feel this way. They wanted to understand the effect exercise had on this fatigue that was truly unexplained.
They randomly selected 36 healthy, but sedentary, young males and females. These people were then divided into three groups:
1.    Those who were to perform low intensity exercise
2.    Those who were to perform Moderate intensity exercise
3.    Those who were to perform No exercise at all (the control group)
Before starting the study, everyone’s mood and physical activity was assessed. Then, each group was made to come to the exercise centre 3 times a week for 6 weeks- and exercise according to their group.
What does low or moderate intensity exercise mean?
Moderate intensity exercise meant cycling on an exercise bike for 5 minutes of warm up (at 25W), then 20 minutes of cycling such that their ventilation rate was 75% of peak, then 5 minutes of cool down.
Low intensity was similar, except that for 20 minutes, they were made to cycle such that their maximum ventilation rate remained at 40% of peak.
It’s alright if you don’t understand this. Bottomline is that, one group cycled moderately hard for 20 minutes and the other did some low-intensity cycling.
What did the study find?
They found some interesting things:
First, those from the moderate intensity group were found to have a higher increase in fitness compared to the low- intensity group. This finding is understandable.
They also found something surprising. Those in the low-intensity group experienced improved fatigue at a higher rate than that of the moderate intensity!
SO- before starting the study, those in the low intensity group had a fatigue score of almost 6. This dropped down to 2 by the end of the study. The numbers for moderate intensity are 7.5 dropping down to 4.
Here’s a graph explaining this:
The blue line shows the change in the fatigue scores for the low intensity group, which is a lot steeper than the yellow line (Yellow line represents the change in fatigue scores for the moderate intensity).
So, what does all this mean?
Exercise helps with fatigue. In fact, if you’re doing low- intensity exercise, you’re likely to benefit more than you think!
It’s recommended to exercise at least 30 minutes per day for 5 days of the week. Walk to work, ride a cycle, climb the stairs while going to work or your home, take a walk in the park while listening to your favourite podcast- the possibilities are endless!
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