Shorter Sessions for Greater Durability

With our competing responsibilities in our day-to-day lives, squeezing in an hour workout, let alone any exercise, can prove challenging. Instead of the all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to our fitness plan, shorter workouts can drive sustainability. A bite-sized, or microworkout, can be 20 minutes or less, and can incorporate a blend of aerobic training and resistance exercises.

Even if you can squeeze five minutes, the benefits of a high-intensity internal training (HIIT) series may lower insulin resistance and blood sugar dysfunction. Microworkouts deliver two distinct and awesome benefits: First, when you add up the energy expenditure of these brief but frequent efforts, you obtain an incredible cumulative training effect. In essence, you are banking a lot of strength/power/explosiveness “mileage” without disturbing the necessary stress/rest balance of your official workout schedule or prompting the stress hormone production and cellular depletion that occurs from an extreme weekend warrior-type session.

If you’re watching TV, there’s plenty of ways to work your muscles. During commercial breaks, engage in overhead punches or tricep dips until your show is back on. You can even do leg raises while you’re on the couch.

Tabata is easily one of the most common types of microworkouts. For 10 minutes, engage in eight 20-second sets of exercise with 10 seconds of rest between each set. With Tabata, you can insert any type of exercise, including squats, burpees, and lateral slides. The workout is named after Dr. Izumi Tabata, who used it on students back in the ’90s. “After four minutes’ hard exercise they were wiped out.

As expected, people have been questioning the legitimacy of microworkouts. Could something so short deliver the same punch as a normal workout?

Being able to bring a slice of the gym experience home or at work is beneficial. It can help de-stress you after a rough meeting at the office. It can also give you confidence before an important decision. These quick five to 10 minute exercises can only go so far, though. Inserting them in-between time at the gym can help boost your stamina.