Challenging Thinking
How little exercise do you need to do to get fit? Surprisingly as little as 3 minutes of exercise, a week may improve your health – improve the insulin sensitivity. It has always been assumed that training should consist of for example, 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day at least 5 days per week . However, the opposite is also true.
High Intensity Training (HIT) challenges the idea that you need to workout for a couple of hours every week. Vigorous bouts of exercise mixed with short breaks in between is not a new idea as such, athletes have used this enhanced form of interval training to strengthening their muscles and improve their fitness. Recently, researchers have looked into the health benefits of using this type of training. And the results have challenged traditional thinking and it looks like it is possible to get more by doing less.
A less extreme form of HIT, where a person does not exercise for long may suit groups that belong to a group where doctors might have concerns about them. High intensity training may be suitable for overweight, less fit, and older people. The method is also suitable for improving muscles and ten one minutes sprints on the exercise bike with a one minute rests in between, three times a week, may achieve similar effect as hours of less intensive training on the exercise bike.
Searching for Positive Aspects
The new ideas is challenging traditional thinking and a search for other groups that may benefit from high intensity training lead to these new insights. Challenging the idea that only certain groups benefit from a specific types of training, included broadening the search for possible positive benefits.from training. In this case, the idea emerged by listening to groups who claim that “traditional exercise regime” does not help them to lose weight.
Spending time broadening the search for plus points in any idea is beneficial since it helps to provide a more rounded view of the idea. It is also vital to consider if the positive features can be better used in other ways. Can the plus points be enhanced and improved? An active search for new potential plus points can significantly improve a product. New ways to incorporate these new plus points could be explored and developed.
Writing a list of advantages highlights the fact that advantages are relative – an advantage is a favourable position over one or more alternatives or opponents. Providing reasons behind why a certain idea has an advantage over another helps to emphasise the underlying positives with the idea. Identifying the group or individuals that may have an advantage if the solution is carried out is also important. We can give an advantage to a group or individual by carrying out a certain idea. For example, the unwanted side effects of an experimental medicine might be used to advantage in the treatment of a different medical condition. Thus, an open approach to how we can search advantages relies on a broadening of the concept advantages.
Different Ways to Approach a Search for Advantages for X
- Decide what groups to include in the search for advantages and explore what these groups would highlight – children, elderly, people with good sense of smell, visual artists, animals, plants.
- Compare the idea with another idea, what factors stand out?
- Choose different things to compare ideas with – some that are similar and others that are completely different.
- What would happen if the product or solution were used every day? Or everyone used it the whole time?
- Look at different bits of the idea – it is possible that there are some positive points with parts of the idea.
- Explore what would happen in the future if the idea were not carried out.
- Imagine working in a society where the idea has never been implemented and we have to explain it to the people. What would we say? And what would they say are the positive aspects of the idea?
We recommend that you explore in depth that advantages with an idea before reacting to it. We often react to an idea – looking for negative points – from our current practices, frames, vested interests, established industries, or old paradigms. This prevents us from further developing the idea and testing the idea. In this case, the idea that some groups do not benefit from exercise due to their genetic heritage could be explored from a range of perspectives to support them to a healthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, we provide you with a different view about the benefits of HIT by Adam Richmond from Lace Market Clinic.
Photo: “Walk The Dog” by federico stevanin
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