Can You Build Muscles, Get Fit In Eight Minutes a Day?
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Here is a new philosophy showing up in the nation's fitness clubs. The claim is that we can actually build muscles and get fit in just eight minutes a day. Oh, yes? Let's see what Dr. Gupta has to think about that. Does it work? I'd love for it to work. Think of all the time all of us would save.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I know, and that's we're praying on. We are a nation of shortcuts, and that's exactly what they are hoping people will say, they'll save a lot of time by doing the eight-minute workouts a day. Let me tell you a little bit about that. There is a little revolution going on when it comes to fitness, and we've been talking about it a lot, you and I, Paula, fats versus carbs, red wine versus no red wine. Well, aerobic versus weights is sort of going to become the new locker room buzz. In part, because there is a bunch of authors out there, a bunch of fitness experts who are saying all you need to do really is weight training. You can throw aerobic training out the window. It's not providing you any additional benefits. Their thinking is that if you actually do the weight training, it's kind of like putting money in the bank. Even when you're not exercising, you're drawing a benefit from it because muscle metabolizes better than fat. As opposed to aerobic training, when you're finished with your aerobic workout, you're sort of done and you stop garnering the benefits from that. So that's the philosophy at least. Most of the exercise experts we spoke to said, not surprisingly, that you need to do a combination of both, and you really need to focus on three things, endurance, flexibility and strength. And while weight training will certainly give you part of that, it won't give you all of it. So they recommend both, Paula.</s>ZAHN: But how many minutes a day? I'm still not clear on that.</s>GUPTA: There is different books out there. There is one book that actually was the number two book on the Amazon Web site last year, says eight minutes of day of just weight training, and they focused on this sort of sort of resistance weight training, where you're actually the entire time you're lifting, you're going very slowly to try to get resistance the entire time both up and down, and that was their focus. But again, the exercise experts we spoke to said there are risks and benefits to both. Let's take a look at the benefits of cardio training and the benefits of weight training. If you look at the benefits of cardio training alone, you can see them there, it improves function of the cardiovascular system. So if you're someone who's exercising because you're really concerned about your heart, aerobic activity, cardiovascular activity will provide you that benefit. Manage and control body weight, reduce risk of chronic disease and illness. Paula, you've talked about the fact that obesity is related to just about every cancer and every chronic illness out there. You can help reduce that from a cardiovascular workout. Maintain bone mass, preserve youth and promote longevity, and improve control over blood pressure. There is also risks of doing aerobic activity, which the proponents of weight activity will tell you. Orthopedic injuries, people hurting their knees, people hurting their ankles from running, things like that. But there are risks and benefits of weight training. Take a look at some of the benefits first of weight training. Maintain functional independence. Paula, as people get older, they tend to lose muscle mass, so you can actually improve that by doing weight training at least a few times a week. That might be of great benefit. Weight control, again. Body composition -- that we're talking about muscle versus fat composition. Improving strength overall in the long run, and improving bone mineral density, certainly a concern for women, certainly becoming osteoporatic. The risks of this orthopedic injury is just like with aerobic training. So risks and benefits to both. But again, the experts we spoke to said a combination is what most people really need.</s>ZAHN: Inquiring minds want to know this morning what the good doctor is doing to maintain his buff bod.</s>GUPTA: Well, you know, one thing I've gotten into is swimming. I found that swimming is a good exercise. I can only do it by 20, 25 minutes a day or so, but I actually find it's not so hard on my joints, and I get a little bit of resistance from the water, which is nice, so a little bit of upper body and get the aerobic activity all in one.</s>ZAHN: I'm a fan of that. Thanks, doctor.</s>GUPTA: See you soon. Take care. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com