Last January I wrote a Blog about New Year’s Resolutions:
https://www.performancehealthcenter.com/make-your-new-years-resolutions-stick/
Well, this year I found a recent study that may help us “stick” with one of the most commonly started and “dropped” resolutions… and that is to start and continue exercising on a regular basis.
In August I wrote a Blog about a Research Study that concluded you can add 3 years to your Life Expectancy by running only 5 minutes per day.
Well, just this week I read an article in the New York Times about how exercising just 1 minute a day can make significant improvements to your health!
A kinesiology professor named Martin Gibala from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada conducted this study. The actual sessions were 10 minutes, but only one minute of that was done at a higher intensity. The volunteers were asked to complete a truly time-efficient, interval-training program using computerized stationary bicycles. Each session consisted of three 20-second “all-out” intervals, during which riders pushed the pedals absolutely as hard as they could manage, followed by two minutes of slow, easy pedaling. The riders also warmed up for two minutes and cooled down for three, for a grand total of 10 minutes of total exercise time, with one minute of that being the intense interval training. The volunteers completed three of these sessions per week, leading to 30 minutes of weekly exercise, for six weeks.
The results of this study showed ‘statistically significant physiological changes linked to improved health in adults.
The actual research study can be read here:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0111489
The author states that the exercise does not need to be cycling. He suggests sprinting up stairs in 20-second bursts, or to even run hard in place. The point is that time constraints shouldn’t keep you from exercising. Just think… in the time it took you to read this Blog, you would be done with your workout for today. : )
If you have any questions about this Blog, or how to start your own personal exercise regimen or any questions about your health in general, please feel free to contact me at: [email protected]