Feeling Tired? A Little Bit of Exercise Goes a Long Way

I’m sure you’ve heard it before: get regular exercise; exercise 60 minutes a day, exercise 30 minutes a day, exercise every day, move, move, move.  And, yup, you see people exercising their hearts out while you sit there because you’re too darned tired to get moving.  You might think,  “What’s the use?  I can’t do that much exercise.  And a little bit of exercise won’t help me at all.”

Well, you’d be wrong!  A new study by researchers at the University of Georgia found something very interesting: people who don’t exercise regularly can increase their energy and reduce their level of fatigue with low intensity exercise. They took subjects who did not exercise regularly and who reported being consistently fatigued.  The subjects who exercised 20 minutes 3 times a week (for 6 weeks) had a 20% increase in energy levels.  And, surprisingly, the group that exercised at a low intensity reported a greater decrease in how tired they felt than those who exercised the same amount of time at a moderate intensity.

So, what does this mean?  It means get out there and move, even if it’s for a little bit of low intensity exercise like a leisurely stroll.  Work your way up to 20 minutes 3 times a week, if you can’t do 20 minutes of walking in one shot.  If you start with even just a little bit of exercise, you’ll give yourself a bit more energy each time so you can do more next time.