What's enough exercise for you?
The CDC and Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults aim to participate in a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity running or 75 minutes of high intensity Running at least every week.
The importance of strength training, which should be done twice a week, is also stressed by the CDC. These exercises should be focused on total fitness, with a specific emphasis on the large muscle groups
Many people are following a healthy exercise routine consisting of one continuous physical activity every day in order to comply with these guidelines. To achieve the same results and obtain the recommended amount of working time, however, you can also combine a longer session with several short exercises.
• Benefits of mini workouts :
The benefits of shorter, multiple exercise sessions, according to John Gallucci, Jr., DPT, CEO of JAGONE Physical Therapy, are that they give you more flexibility in your daily schedule, allowing you to focus on your health, while juggling family, work, and friends' obligations.
By this I mean, when you do bitesize exercises daily throughout the day it may help to stay on track with your exercise program and gain a great deal of benefits from exercising regularly.
• Here's six of the main benefits that you get from exercise over time:
1- Improve your overall health:
Over a series of studies, it has been observed that an accumulation of exercise for less than 10 minutes in the course of each day produces equivalent effects on overall health outcomes compared with one continuous period of exercise.
In particular, there was no difference in outcomes of blood pressure or cardiorespiratory function between accumulated and continuous exercise according to one review of 19 studies involving 1,080 participants.
In addition, similar benefits were noted in the two groups when it came to blood fats, insulin and glucose levels.
In general, they concluded that when adults spend a shorter period of time engaged in activity during the day it will likely result in similar health benefits as if they were to perform just one exercise.(1)
2-May improve exercise adherence:
Patience, persistence and a lot of motivation is needed in order to commit to your exercise program over time.
Sadly, a lot of people quit working out before they've had an opportunity to reap the benefits of exercise. The bottom line is, it may be easier to stick to the routine when there are fewer sessions during the day.
A study from the early 1990s has shown that, at least in order to enhance exercise adherence and weight loss, brief periods of activity may be more effective than a long session: approximately ten minutes each.(2)
3- Improve the health and mood of your brain:
Shorter duration workouts save people time, [allow people to] fit multiple bouts of exercise into a single day, and take advantage of the short-term neurological, physical, and psychological benefits of exercise,” says Ryan Glatt, FAFS, BSc, CPT, NBWHC, psychometrist, personal trainer, and brain health coach for the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center.(3)
Indeed, Glatt says that it can bring temporary benefits to your brain and mood when you perform just a single exercise session at least every three or five minutes throughout the day.
One study, for example, found that after 10 minutes of walking and meditation the participants who performed this activity had a higher mood than those which were not active.
4- Can help to reduce blood pressure:
A small study comparing the effect of short aerobic exercises with continuous exercise on 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure was conducted by Gaesser and his colleagues.
They found that doing three 10-minute walks during the day (morning, midday, late afternoon) lowered blood pressure more than doing one 30-minute walk in prehypertensive individuals.(4)
5- Reduce the stress of working out:
The short interval training can decrease the stress response or fear that some people experience during a workout session," Gallucci said.
From the perspective of fitness, it seems to me that less intense exercise becomes part of your day than a stressful session at the gym.
6-Can help you reach your fitness goals:
According to Christine Ogbonna, DPT, Physical Therapist at the Providence Saint johns Performance Therapy Center she says.
“Shorter workouts allow people with busy schedules to focus on what they can perform in small controlled bouts throughout the day without feeling overwhelmed by committing a huge amount of time to work out,”
Plus, mini workouts are easy to schedule and more sustainable to perform and commit to long term, and they allow for more focused, intensive, and intentional exercise to occur, especially if you’re easily distracted.
• Training techniques for fitting in a short workout:
1- Plan ahead
According to Ogbonna, the best way to accumulate a balance of strength, cardio, and mobility exercises throughout the day is to plan.
“Find a mode of exercise you thoroughly enjoy that will be a relief for you at certain times throughout the day, then, set up your office space, home, even your car to accommodate the exercises you need to perform,” she says.
2- Schedule your workouts
Glatt says it's good to plan these little exercises or snacks of the day, as he calls them, and they can be done at a time convenient for you. For some it's useful to set a reminder on the calendar, so when time comes for you to get up and go, they will alert you.
3- Mix it up
If you break up your exercise into a series of short exercises, try concentrating on different muscles and the type of movement each time you do it," says Gallucci.
In particular, the core and cardio can be targeted in your initial workout. The second one is geared towards your arms and strength, while the third focuses on your back and flexibility.
It may not seem like it while you exercise, but in time these modest exercises will be a lot more effective than they are now," he says.
4- Break it up
Take a standard 30 minutes, 45 minutes workout and break it into two 2–3 minute sessions if you are already exercising and would like to try a mini workout.
For example, instead of doing a 30–45-minute cardio and resistance training session after work, take a 15-minute walk in the morning, do a 15-minute light yoga or stretching session at lunch, and then a 15-minute high intensity interval training (HIIT) routine after work.
In addition, you'll be able to schedule a 30 minute session over ten or three minutes of continuous activity during the day.
And that's a great way to promote movement, whatever you can do. If your kid is playing on the playground, for example, if you've got a set of dumbbells under my desk and do 3 sets of 1 exercise at once, then knock out three minutes of squats.
5- Follow a format
Ogbonna recommends Tabata or HIIT exercises for the cardiovascular and strength benefits.
Here’s a format to follow:
• 5 exercises
• 2 minutes each exercise with a work-rest ratio of 1:1 (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off)
• depending on your fitness level, the work-rest ratio can be altered
Ogbonna says that in order to increase mobility and strength, it is necessary to challenge yourself with heavier weights focusing on proper form because exercises will be carried out for shorter periods.
Consider shorter, bite sized intervals if it's hard to fit in more than 10 minutes.
Here’s a format to follow for shorter bursts of exercise:
• Choose two to three exercises, such as bicep curls, shoulder presses, bodyweight squats, calf raises, lunges, or planks.
• Set your watch for 3 minutes and perform 30 seconds of one exercise, followed by 30 seconds of another. Alternate until the 3 minutes is up.
# 10-minute mini workouts
Try one of the following exercises for 10 minutes at a time:
# Bodyweight circuit 1
• 10 bodyweight squats
• 10 pushups
• 20 jumping jacks
• 20-second plank
• 10 glute bridges
• 20 seconds of rest
• Repeat as many times as possible in 10 minutes
# Bodyweight circuit 2
• 30 seconds bodyweight squats
• 30 seconds jumping jacks or high knees
• 30-second plank
• 30 seconds rest
• Repeat 4–5 times
# Cardio and strength hill repeats
1- Find a short hill.
2- Walk or run to the top.
3- Perform 10 bodyweight squats and 15 walking lunges.
4- Walk down the hill.
5- Repeat as many times as possible for 10–15 minutes.
# Sample yoga routine
• Child’s Pose: 2–3 repetitions, hold for 20–30 seconds
• Cat-Cow: 10 repetitions
• Chair Pose: 10 repetitions
• Downward Dog: 8 repetitions
• Repeat and do as many rounds as possible for 10 minutes.
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