High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for cruisers

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Screen grab from Dr Bush's instructional video

Exercising on a small boat can have its challenges. Do you find your life afloat too sedentary? Are you looking for a simple way to keep your body in shape? Here is a good one. Four minutes, three times per day. No equipment is necessary. Can be done anywhere in the space in which you stand. Could this be the best onboard workout for cruisers? 

Dr Zach Bush has created a 4-minute work out that done 3 times per day will help build muscle and keep joints functioning smoothly. It's based on the principle of nitric oxide release. He calls it High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). In less than 15 minutes per day in total, you will be promoting physical fitness and combating detrimental inflammatory processes.

It's based on some well-known principles. Your muscles have a certain amount of energy stored. If you use up that energy, they'll release nitric oxide as a signal for your body to recuperate. Nitric oxide is found in the endothelium, the inner layer of your blood vessels. It acts as a messenger molecule that transmits signals to cells throughout your body such as the cardiovascular, nervous and immune systems. Once released through exercise, nitric oxide works its way into the smooth muscles and causes them to relax. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs like your intestines, eyes and stomach.

Bush recommends doing the exercise three times a day. That’s because the nitric oxide in your body is replenished within a couple of hours, and releasing it constantly allows your muscles to continually grow and strengthen, as well as provides benefits to the cardiovascular, immune and neurologic systems. One session takes around four minutes, and consists of three rapid sets with 10 repetitions of the following exercises:
  • Squats
  • Arm raises
  • Circular arm swings 
  • Shoulder presses
These exercises are also structured to loosen joints. Once you’re done, you are to relax for a few moments. Over the next 20 seconds or so, you feel a tingling sensation at your fingertips, which means that the nitric oxide is coursing throughout your body. I felt it the first time I tried this workout. I've just begun, so I am going to report my progress as I go along.

I compound matters by being a writer as well as a sailor. I try to get 30 minutes of outdoor exercise daily. Now, perhaps, I can make it work harder for me. The exercises are very easy to do.

Basic video...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PwJCJToQmps

More in-depth explanation
http://www.nitricoxidedump.com/

Another version...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEui9ImJaiI

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