Exercise for the lazy ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.

And I’m Sam. Did you make any New Year’s

resolutions this year, Neil? They’re promises

that you make to yourself to do something

positive in the coming year… And now that

we’re into February, it’s getting harder

to keep those promises!

Yes, the same promises I make every year,

Sam – to exercise more and get fit. But

I’m too lazy to go running on cold winter

mornings - I’d rather stay in bed!

Are you feeling out of shape after

Christmas, like Neil? Maybe you want to

be more active but can’t find the time?

If so, this programme is for you!

Yes, in this lazy person’s guide to

exercise, we’ll be asking: what is the least

amount of exercise someone can get away

with doing whilst still staying healthy?

And, of course, we’ll be learning some

useful new vocabulary as well.

Of course, any exercise is better than

none. ‘Structured exercise’ - activities like

going to a fitness class, or swimming are

great. But if that’s not possible, we’ll be

hearing about small changes you can

make that will help as well.

Which is good news because fewer and

fewer of us of doing what the UK

government recommends - thirty minutes

of moderate exercise a day. In fact, the

government recently downgraded its

recommendations because so few Brits

were following it. So, Sam, according to

new government advice, what is the

minimum number of steps we should walk

every day to stay healthy? Is it:

a) five thousand steps?

b) ten thousand steps? or,

c) twenty thousand steps?

I’ll say a) five thousand steps per day.

OK, Sam. We’ll find out the answer at the

end of the programme. Someone else

who’s interested in how little exercise he

can do is BBC reporter, James Gallagher.

Here’s James speaking with sports

physiologist, Dr Zoe Saynor, after Zoe had

been monitoring James’s fitness while running

on a treadmill for BBC Radio 4

programme, Inside Science.

… I also know you do regularly try

and do structured exercise.

Just to be clear, my structured exercise

training is going for a swim once a week.

Generally, that's fantastic! I guess my

question to you would be, how hard

do you push yourself when

you go swimming?

Not as hard as the treadmill.

I think the big thing if we come back

to this question of what is the least

I can do? There's clear evidence that if

you want to do shorter exercise

sessions, they need to be

of a higher intensity, right?

So there's a trade-off.

Zoe says that if you don’t have much

time to exercise it’s okay to do shorter

sessions, as long as you push yourself –

try harder and put more effort into what

you’re doing. If you can swim a length in

forty seconds, push yourself

to swim it in thirty-five.

That means exercising harder of course,

but for a shorter time. In other words,

there’s a trade-off – you accept the

disadvantages of something in order

to get the benefit it brings.

Another problem for many people is that

their job is sedentary – it involves little

exercise or physical activity. Zoe thinks

it’s important that office workers who

sit down all day also find time to exercise.

Here she shares her tips with BBC Radio 4

programme, Inside Health.

Especially people who have office jobs are

sat down all day, we then look at some

of the easy wins. So, active travel, and

even if that's parking a little bit further

away. One of the exciting areas in the

literature that's coming out at the

moment, is actually walking faster.

So, if you have no time to suddenly

do 10,000 steps a day, can we get

you to do 5,000 steps faster? Will we

see an improvement on your health?

Yes, we will see an improvement on

your health, especially over a longer

period of time. The big focus around short,

sharp exercise sessions is you

get more bang for your buck.

Zoe’s suggestions for active travel,

things like walking from the car, and

using the stairs instead of the lift,

are easy wins - tasks that are both easy

to accomplish and bring benefits.

Easy wins, like short but intensive

bursts of exercise, increase fitness and

give you more bang for your buck,

and idiom which means that you get

better results for the same amount of

effort you put in. That’s something

everyone can appreciate – even you, Neil.

Well, I’ll definitely try to walk more,

but remember, Sam, the

body needs rest too!

And speaking of walking, isn’t it time

to reveal the answer to your question:

how many steps does the UK

government recommend we should

walk a day? I guessed it was five

thousand… So, was I right?

You were close, Sam, but in fact

the correct answer is ten thousand

steps a day, although as Zoe mentioned,

walking fewer steps faster has

benefits too. OK, let’s recap the

vocabulary we’ve learned from our

lazy guide to exercise, starting with

New Year’s resolution – a promise you

make to yourself to do positive

things in the coming year.

When you push yourself, you put more

effort into what you’re doing.

In a trade-off, you accept the

disadvantages of something in order

to get the benefits as well. ‘Trade-off’

can also be used as a verb.

The adjective, sedentary, describes

something which involves little

exercise or physical activity.

An easy win is a task that is both

easy to accomplish and

brings positive results.

And finally, the idiom more bang

for your buck, means you get

a better outcome for the same

amount of effort you put into

something. We hope your New Year’s

resolutions have made it into February!

If there’s just one you keep, make

it joining us again soon for more

topical chat here at 6 Minute English.

Bye for now!

Bye!