The
excuse of not having time to exercise just got deleted permanently under a
study showing all it needs is a single minute of intense activity to obtain
benefits of longer regimen. Climbing the stairs at work after lunch could be an
ideal and quick workout.
Researchers at McMaster University have shown that a
workout totaling 10 minutes of intense exercise in brief bursts equals the
outcomes from 45 minutes of continuous cycling in terms of cardio-respiratory
fitness and insulin sensitivity.
"This is a very time-efficient workout
strategy," says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster and
lead author on the study. "Brief bursts of intense exercise are remarkably
effective."
The sprint interval training (SIT) compared
remarkably similar to moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), as
recommended in public health guidelines. The MICT protocol involved five times
as much exercise and a five-fold greater time commitment.
The SIT protocol, which involved three 20-second
'all-out' cycle sprints, included a 2-minute warm-up and 3-minute cool down,
and two minutes of easy cycling for recovery between the hard sprints. The MIT
group performed 45 minutes of continuous cycling at a moderate pace, plus the
same warm-up and cool down. After 12 weeks of training, the results were
remarkably similar in the two groups of 27 sedentary men.
Gibala, who has studied interval training for more
than a decade has experimented with different protocols in an effort to
identify the most time-efficient exercise strategies.
The findings are published online in the journal
PLOS ONE.
A study published in 2015 in the Journal of the
American College of Cardiology found that running as little as five minutes a
day gives the same benefits of running or walking for longer periods. Another
study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN)
proved that the health hazards of sitting for long periods can be offset by two
minutes of walking every hour, in combination with 2.5 hours of moderate
exercise each week
The WHO and the US government recommend 75 minutes
per week of vigorous-intensity activity, such as running.
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