As women, many of us find it difficult to squeeze in a good workout—especially between work, a busy home life, a love life, and having some down time. However, fitness experts are now stressing that any exercise—no matter how little—is better than none at all.
According to Martin Gibala, Ph.D., author of The One Minute Workout, notes that it is possible to see results from a few minutes of exercise each week. That being said, there are a number of limitations to this.
“If you want the benefits of very short duration exercise, typically the intensity of the exercise needs to be very high,” he says. “It needs to be big-enough exercise.”
In a recent study, Gibala looked at two different groups of exercisers: one doing 150 minutes of low-intensity exercise over three sessions, and a second group doing three 300-minute workouts per week. Each workout included a warmup, three 20-second, high-intensity intervals, and a cooldown period.
The results showed that after just a few months, the two groups saw surprisingly similar results: especially when it came to overall fitness, blood sugar control, and cellular change in muscles.
As such, it is evident that you can get in shape in short bursts of exercise. However, it is essential that you take diet into account, as well, especially if you’re looking to lose weight. While exercise can contribute to overall fitness, diet is an essential element in overall health.
