exercise | moderate exertion
Overview
The Mismatch Method exercise plan recommends daily 30-minute walks at moderate levels of exertion to better align your physical activity level to your evolutionary design and improve your health. What is moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (also called moderate aerobic exercise)? The American College of Sports Medicine defines it as physical activity that elevates your pulse to 40–59% of something called the Heart Rate Reserve, or 64–76% of your age-calculated maximum heart rate (220 minus your age). As you likely don’t own a heart rate monitor, measuring your pulse rate while exercising can be challenging. We suggest using two easy tests to ensure you exercise at the correct intensity level.
The Sweat Test
First, make sure you’re breaking a sweat when you exercise. The aerobic energy system powering your muscles produces excess internal heat when you’re performing physical activity at a moderate intensity. This heat moves towards toward the skin and is dissipated as sweat. This prevents large and possibly dangerous conditions in core body temperature. In other words, sweating is your body's process to cool down when you're walking, hiking, running, biking, and swimming (yes you sweat when you swim at a moderate rate of exertion–it's just very hard to tell).
The Sing Test
Second, use the “sing test.” If you perform moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise, your breathing rate will increase as your aerobic energy system requires more oxygen. If you can sing a few verses of a song before becoming winded, you’re walking at a moderate intensity level. If you can easily sing a few verses, you are not exercising vigorously enough and should increase the intensity of your exertion. If you cannot sing more than a few words before becoming winded, you’re exercising at a vigorous intensity level and should slow down your pace. You’ll learn to recognize your exertion level within a week of regular exercise.
Exercise Goals
Your goal is to complete 30 consistent minutes of moderate aerobic activity. It’s perfectly fine if you can’t perform 30 minutes of exercise when you start the program. Do what you can, take breaks, and build up to 30 minutes. For those with busy lives, the 30 minutes can be broken up to accommodate any schedule, such as two 15 minute walks. What is most important is the consistency of 30 minutes of moderate-level aerobic exercise daily.
Selected References
Our ancestors were nomadic: Raichlen, D. A., Pontzer, H., Harris, J. A., Mabulla, A. Z. P., Marlowe, F. W., Josh Snodgrass, J., Eick, G., Colette Berbesque, J., Sancilio, A., & Wood, B. M. (2017). Physical activity patterns and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk in hunter‐gatherers. American Journal of Human Biology, 29(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22919
Metabolizing stored fat: La New, J. M., & Borer, K. T. (2022). Effects of Walking Speed on Total and Regional Body Fat in Healthy Postmenopausal Women. Nutrients, 14(3), 627. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030627
20 minutes of exercise suppresses molecular signals: Dimitrov, S., Hulteng, E., & Hong, S. (2017). Inflammation and exercise: Inhibition of monocytic intracellular TNF production by acute exercise via β2-adrenergic activation. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 61, 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2016.12.017
(1) Cardiovascular improvement from aerobic exercise: Shiroma, E. J., & Lee, I.-M. (2010). Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health: Lessons Learned From Epidemiological Studies Across Age, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity. Circulation, 122(7), 743–752. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.914721
(2) Cardiovascular improvement from aerobic exercise: Ozemek, C., Laddu, D. R., Lavie, C. J., Claeys, H., Kaminsky, L. A., Ross, R., Wisloff, U., Arena, R., & Blair, S. N. (2018). An Update on the Role of Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Structured Exercise and Lifestyle Physical Activity in Preventing Cardiovascular Disease and Health Risk. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 61(5–6), 484–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2018.11.005
(3) Cardiovascular improvement from aerobic exercise: Pinckard, K., Baskin, K. K., & Stanford, K. I. (2019). Effects of Exercise to Improve Cardiovascular Health. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 6, 69. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2019.00069
12-week aerobic exercise muscle volume increase: Konopka, A. R., & Harber, M. P. (2014). Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy After Aerobic Exercise Training. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 42(2), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000007
Increase in hippocampus structure after exercise: Erickson, K. I., Voss, M. W., Prakash, R. S., Basak, C., Szabo, A., Chaddock, L., Kim, J. S., Heo, S., Alves, H., White, S. M., Wojcicki, T. R., Mailey, E., Vieira, V. J., Martin, S. A., Pence, B. D., Woods, J. A., McAuley, E., & Kramer, A. F. (2011). Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 3017–3022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015950108
Study of 100 subjects exercising at a Manhattan YMCAs: Stern, Y., MacKay-Brandt, A., Lee, S., McKinley, P., McIntyre, K., Razlighi, Q., Agarunov, E., Bartels, M., & Sloan, R. P. (2019). Effect of aerobic exercise on cognition in younger adults: A randomized clinical trial. Neurology, 92(9), e905–e916. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000007003
Endorphins are released during aerobic exercise: Basso, J. C., & Suzuki, W. A. (2017). The Effects of Acute Exercise on Mood, Cognition, Neurophysiology, and Neurochemical Pathways: A Review. Brain Plasticity, 2(2), 127–152. https://doi.org/10.3233/BPL-160040
Release of serotonin during exercise: Wipfli, B., Landers, D., Nagoshi, C., & Ringenbach, S. (2011). An examination of serotonin and psychological variables in the relationship between exercise and mental health: Serotonin, exercise, and mental health. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 21(3), 474–481. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2009.01049.x
(1) Ancient ancestors walked 5-7 miles: O’Keefe, J. H., Vogel, R., Lavie, C. J., & Cordain, L. (2010). Achieving Hunter-gatherer Fitness in the 21st Century: Back to the Future. The American Journal of Medicine, 123(12), 1082–1086. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2010.04.026
(2) Ancient ancestors walked 5-7 miles: F Booth et al. Role of inactivity in chronic diseases: evolutionary insight and pathophysiological mechanisms, Physiol Rev, 2017 Oct; 97(4):1351-1402. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00019.2016