Why Four Workouts a Week May Be Better Than Six
每周锻炼四次效果最佳
A common concern about exercise is that if you don't do it almost every day, you won't achieve much health benefit. But a commendable new study suggests otherwise, showing that a fairly leisurely approach to scheduling workouts may actually be more beneficial than working out almost daily.
对于健身，人们普遍存在这样的顾虑，那就是如果你没有天天运动，就无法取得足够的健康益处。但一项值得向大家推荐的新研究则提供了不同的看法，这项研究表明，轻松惬意的锻炼日程也许比每天孜孜不倦的锻炼，会对人们更为有益。
For the new study, published this month in Exercise & Science in Sports & Medicine, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham gathered 72 older, sedentary women, ages 60 to 74, and randomly assigned them to one of three exercise groups.
这项研究发表在本月的《运动与锻炼中的医学与科学》(Exercise & Science in Sports & Medicine)，阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校(University of Alabama at Birmingham)的研究者们找来了72位年龄在60岁到74岁之间、平素较少运动的女性，将她们随机分配到三个健身小组中的一组。
One group began lifting weights once a week and performing an endurance-style workout, like jogging or bike riding, on another day.
一个小组每周有一天进行举重锻炼，而在另一天进行像慢跑或骑自行车这样的耐力练习。
Another group lifted weights twice a week and jogged or rode an exercise bike twice a week.
另一个小组每周安排两天举重练习，两天慢跑或骑自行车。
The final group, as you may have guessed, completed three weight-lifting and three endurance sessions, or six weekly workouts.
而第三组的锻炼方式你或许已经猜出来了，她们每周进行三天的举重练习，三天的耐力练习，总共锻炼六天。
The exercise, which was supervised by researchers, was easy at first and meant to elicit changes in both muscles and endurance. Over the course of four months, the intensity and duration gradually increased, until the women were jogging moderately for 40 minutes and lifting weights for about the same amount of time.
研究者全程监控参与者锻炼，锻炼起初很轻松，其目的是改变参与者的肌肉和耐力。在四个月时间里，锻炼的强度和时长逐渐提升，最终这些参与的女性可以慢跑40分钟，举重练习也能达到同样的时间。
The researchers were hoping to find out which number of weekly workouts would be, Goldilocks-like, just right for increasing the women's fitness and overall weekly energy expenditure.
研究者希望能藉此发现每周锻炼多少次刚好合适，在每周投入一定时间的精力锻炼后，能恰如其分地增强参与者的体能。
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