Don’t think you have enough time to work out? There’s no more excuses! New research has discovered you can still benefit from as little as one minute of exercise.
Lack of time is a common excuse when it comes to avoiding exercise. According to Blackmores, our health can often take a backseat, as more people feel the increased time constraints with the demands of everyday life such as work, family and social commitments.
In recent research published online in PLoS Medicine (the Public Library of Science), it was found that brief bursts of exercise can be used when time is limited, and the greater the intensity, the more calories to you will burn.
The research examined the benefits of sprint interval training – exercise characterised by brief intermittent bursts of relatively intense exercise separated by periods of low-intensity exercise for recovery.
Study participants trained around 3 times per week over 12 weeks. One group performed interval training, including three 20 second all out sprints spread out over 10 minutes, while another group exercised at a moderate intensity for 50 minutes.
The results demonstrated both groups achieved similar benefits in various measures of health and fitness, including insulin sensitivity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscle cell adaptations.
One striking difference between the groups was that duration that the sprint interval group exercised for was five times less in total.
It is important to note that the subjects in this study were mostly untrained, and more research is needed to determine if these same benefits extend to trained, aerobically fit participants.
How to train in short intervals
Incorporating sprint intervals into your training routine is simple.
The following regimen was used by participants in the research project and repeated three times a week. You can replace cycling with a range of other exercises including swimming, skipping, running and boxing.
- 2 minutes – Warm up
- 20 seconds – All out 100% effort cycling
- 2 minutes – Active rest (cycling very slowly at 10 – 20% effort)
- 20 seconds – All out 100% effort cycling
- 2 minutes – Active rest (cycling very slowly at 10 – 20% effort)
- 20 seconds – All out 100% effort cycling
- 3 minutes – Cool down by cycling slowly and stretching
The total duration of the workout is 10 minutes, although it’s only a total of 60 seconds all-out effort, or 3 minutes a week. Lack of time is no longer an excuse!
