Does doing a cardio tracking series affect results?

This text was written by a TecMundo columnist; Learn more at the end.

We live in conflict situations every day. A series of mental conflicts between activities we think we should do and other activities we want to do. It’s a tough duel that requires choosing between doing what we want for immediate reward and doing what we know we need to do for long-term benefits like our health.

These are things like lying on the couch and watching Netflix, or getting up and going to the gym, using a meal delivery app, or making dinner at home. In these, we need to control ourselves; the ability to avoid temptations and instant gratification, the ability to ignore impulses and thoughts that are not always suitable for us.

The problem arises when these decisions are bad for our health, work, and relationships.

What science has discovered is that in some of these cases we don’t need to decide on just one side of the conflict. Discover a practical strategy for getting healthier by combining something good for your health (physical exercise) with something fun.

Grouping of temptations

In this way – grouping of temptations, It is called the strategy of grouping an activity that needs to be done with something we want to do.. Physical exercise is healthy and many people want to do it but are unable to do so and are losing out to unfair competition from TV series streamed on the couch at home. But what if we combine the two? According to science, this could be a good strategy.

Economist Katherine Milkman, who has difficulty exercising, stipulated that she should only be “allowed” to watch the TV series during her workouts. This worked for him and he later tested it scientifically through experiments.

He challenged students to exercise at his university’s gym and win $100 (payment for participation in research is allowed in the US). More than 200 participants were divided into groups: one of them was given iPods with audiobooks of their choice.

In addition to Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games trilogy, there were also good options such as the Da Vinci Code trilogy, the Dune book series and the Twilight Saga. Despite, This group of students could only listen to the audiobook while doing aerobic exercise at the gym.

In another group, audiobooks were loaded onto their personal iPods and they could access them whenever they wanted, but they were encouraged by the researchers to impose a rule on themselves that they would only listen to them at the gym. The most chosen book was The Hunger Games. Students in the control group were given a $25 gift card to use at the Barnes & Noble bookstore and were not instructed to group the temptations.

Audiobooks served as bait. After nine weeks, students who received an iPod with audiobooks exercised 51% more than the group that received a gift card. Those who could access their iPods at any time exercised 29% more than the control group. Listening to audiobooks sounds good, podcasts too, but what about watching TV while exercising?

Watch TV series during workouts

The effects of watching television while exercising were tested to see if it made exercise more enjoyable. Non-exercising adults in the United States were tested while walking on a treadmill in three situations:

• Watching 30 minutes of your favorite TV show;
• Watching a 30-minute nature documentary selected by researchers;
• Without watching anything.

The TV programs most preferred by the participants were as follows:ModernFamily”, “Big Bang Theory” And “Last Man Standing”. Exercise on the treadmill required only 50% of participants’ maximum heart rate; This was considered a moderate level of effort intensity.

It’s no surprise that many gyms have televisions on their treadmills, as research shows As expected, pleasure during exercise was greater while watching a favorite program on TV than when watching nothing.. Even if they didn’t choose the program, the exercise experience was more enjoyable than watching nothing at all.

The effects of watching TV on physical exercise performance appear to have not yet been tested, but given that the results come from consistency and that this can be motivated by good experiences such as enjoyment, it seems like a good strategy. Therefore, a suggestion is to group the things you like, such as watching TV series or listening to podcasts, so that you only do them while exercising.

If you’re not already exercising, it may take a while for exercise to reward you, says Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal. So, during this time, one way is to use positive dissociation, which basically consists of distracting yourself during exercise. but not with social media or news on TV, but with music or something interesting.

The mechanisms behind the best experience of watching something are cerebral, according to research showing that activity in brain regions varies, especially in central and frontal regions.

Good episodes if watching a series while exercising encourages you to move and be healthier.

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Fábio Dominski He holds a PhD in Human Movement Sciences and a degree in Physical Education from Santa Catarina State University (UDESC). He is a university professor and researcher at the Laboratory of Sport and Exercise Psychology (LAPE/UDESC). he does scientific dissemination on social media and in podcast available on Spotify. Author of Physical Exercise and Science – Facts and Myths.