How many times a week should one exercise to create physical change? How many weeks of practice? How many repetitions to create the form or pose? How many sets of repetitions? How long is a good stretch? Below are some numbers describing exercise patterns and efforts.
How Long to Hold a Stretch in Yoga
Yoga practice holds a stretch for 5 breaths. How many seconds is this? It depends on the lengths of breath. Holding a stretch in place, a passive stretch, can last anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds. Yoga poses are measured in breaths not repetitions, per se. A breath is a complete inhalation and exhalation.
Mukunda's "Structural Yoga Therapy”, places a student in a beginner vs. advanced practice based on how many breaths (up to 12 breaths) they perform before they can no longer holding the pose in place.
How Many Reps to Build Muscle or Muscle Memory
The answers vary only slightly depending if it’s from a physical therapy angle or a body building desire. The range is from 8 to 12 reps. Muscle memory is brain training for a repeated physical response. Walking is one foot in front of the other without any planned effort once the toddler stage is competed. Brain cells form a circuit for each repeated activity. Muscle endurance, an aspect of building muscle strength, requires up to 20 reps, but at least 12.
How Many Sets of Reps and How Long to Rest Between
Circuit training often has brief periods of rest as the participant goes between stations but some studies show longer rest with heavier exertion build more muscle and endurance. The rest period in that case can be a minute up to 3 minutes between activity.
How Many Times a Week to Exercise
Three times a week is great, but for some it’s the amount of time each day such as 30 minutes 5 times a week.
- The American College of Sports Medicine suggest 5 times a week but breaks up exercise into part of the day.
- Rehab Institute of Chicago says twice a week for a newbie to get cardio benefits and even start weight loss.
- Yoga is believed to effect a change even with one class a week but at 3 classes a week the practice becomes easier. Most yoga practitioners eventually have a personal home practice which the body and mind demands.
How Long Does it Take to Create this Exercise Habit/Pose or Change it?
Habits are behaviors that are constant and unchanged. An example is brushing teeth upon awakening, praying before meals, going to the gym at 9 every morning…. Theories abound based on time to modify behavior anywhere from 2 months to over a year to create a change. Depending on which site you google, 21 days can create a fitness routine, or a month of repetitive practice… or even 10 times. Doing something for 10 minutes a day to make it a habit is a step in managing performance.
A conditioned response is what happened in the case of Pavlov’s dogs. They salivated when a meat packet was placed in their mouth. A bell ringing at the same time caused an eventual salivation to the sound in anticipation of the meat. This is a conditioned response. Putting on tennis shoes every morning might help in creating the habit pf daily walking or running. The shoes now give the desire or need to walk or run. A habit can be created this way. Likewise, many people feel unrolling their yoga mat stirs the desire to begin an asana.
Six months of practice brings a basic familiarity in routine. Tai Chi studied for 15 weeks reduced falls in those over 70 years of age by almost 50%. Time, breathing, behaviors, repetitions and rest, all play a role in forming a practice routine.
Sources
- Mukunda Stiles, Structural Yoga Therapy, Red wheel/ Weiser Inc, 2000
- Journal of orthopedic and sports physical therapy volume 41(9) 2011
- Journal of Strength and Conditioning Report 9(4) 216-221 1995.
- Rehab Institute of Chicago
- Nerd fitness accessed from the web Sept 24,2011
Amy Andersen - Amy Andersen, MSN, ARNP, family & pediatrics certified, practices yoga and explores the inter-relationships of mind body fitness and ...
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