Speaking of picking a word for the year, how about VILPA!!!
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What is VILPA?
Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity. It doesn’t cost time. And it doesn’t cost money. That’s right, VILPA doesn’t require time to work out. No club membership nor equipment expenses necessary either. So what is it?
VILPA is the very short bouts of vigorous activity (up to one to two minutes) we do with gusto each day, like running for the bus, bursts of power walking while doing errands or playing high-energy games with the kids.
The researchers found that just three to four one-minute bouts of VILPA every day is associated with up to 40 percent reduction in all-cause and cancer-related mortality, and up to a 49 percent reduction in death related to cardiovascular disease.
Wow. Just doing what we are already doing, with a little more gusto, can get you all that. Great output with much less input than, let’s say, HIIT, or high-intensity interval training.
Alternatives to VILPA
VILPA sounds so simple, so too good to be true, that it reminded me of other ways to exercise without exactly exercising that I’ve explored here before.
One was Immersive Virtual Reality, a way to exercise without getting off the couch:
In younger subjects and the elderly alike, the virtual reality improved heart rates and cognitive functioning, with only two 20- minute sessions per week for 6 weeks.
In a follow-up study, participants looked at an avatar running for 30 minutes at 6.4km/h. Self-report and physiological biomarker measurements revealed reduced psychosocial stress and anxiety. From the Tohoku University researchers:
“Psychosocial stress represents the stress experienced in frequent social situations such as social judgment, rejection, and when our performances get evaluated,” says Professor Dalila Burin, who developed the study. “While a moderate amount of exposure to stress might be beneficial, repeated and increased exposure can be detrimental to our health. This kind of virtual training represents a new frontier, especially in countries like Japan, where high performance demands and an aging population exist.”
Other studies have shown that:
- Prisoners found their post-prison golf scores actually improved via visualization of improved swings during prison time.
- Hotel maids showed positive physical impact on a variety of health measures when told that their work was physical exercise.
- People who thought they were less active physically than others had shorter lives.
I guess we have to wonder, therefore, to what extent VILPA is a state of mind. And, speaking of mind, seems only right to share that, just this week, I read a finding that exercise and mindfulness don’t really benefit cognition the way we had thought.
That said, given how easy, if not fun, it sounds, why not give it a try for the other benefits involved? Oh right, because anything new, no matter how easy, can sometimes require brute force to get off the ground.
How to Do VILPA
Well first, for guidance and inspiration, from this University of Sydney study of 25,000 non-exercisers over 7 years, on the impact of “carrying the shopping bags and walking quickly up the stairs,’ here are some VILPA stats:
- About 89 percent of all participants did some VILPA.
- Among those who did VILPA:
- 93 percent of all VILPA bouts last up to 1 minute.
- On average each day participants did eight VILPA bouts of up to 1 minute each, totalling 6 minutes a day.
- On average each VILPA bout lasted around 45 seconds.
- The steepest gains were seen when comparing those with around four to five bouts per day to those with no VILPA.
- However, larger benefits were found with larger VILPA amounts, suggesting the more the better.
- The maximum of 11 bouts per day was associated with a 65 percent reduction in cardiovascular death risk and 49 percent reduction in cancer-related death risk, compared to no VILPA.
And then, even though you may be inspired, you still might not do it—mostly because it takes so much effort to do things we are not already doing, habitually, in our lives.
Motivational speaker, Mel Robbins, to the rescue, with her 5 Second Rule. Robbins is as right as she can be that if we don’t just do it, it might not happen. So, for VILPA, or anything new you want to bring into your life, do treat yourself on YouTube to Mel Robbins and her 5 Second Rule.
Then, as always, Practice, Practice, Practice and let us know what you find.
And, for help with this or something else, Contact Me at https://madelaineweiss.com
Warm wishes,
Madelaine
Photo by Unsplash Jake Hills
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