One Minute Of Intense Exercise Is All You Need, Says Study

Is this too good to be true?

Is your demanding job and busy social life leaving no time to work out? That might no longer be a valid excuse because as it turns out, you do in fact have time for exercise. According to a new rock-solid study published in the PloS One, improving your overall health with physical activity might not actually be as time consuming as you think. The study found that 60 seconds of all-out exercise are just as effective as longer, moderate workout sessions. Yes, you read that correctly.

The study, conducted by scientists at McMaster University in Ontario, divided 25 out-of-shape young men into three groups. Group 1 was the control group and changed nothing about their current, virtually nonexistent exercise routines. Group 2 rode a stationary bike at a moderate pace for 45 minutes, three times a week. Group 3 rode also exercised three times a week for a total of 10 minutes, with only one minute of that time being vigorous. More specifically, five minutes were spent warming up and cooling down on stationary bikes, and the other five were spent alternating between 20 seconds of intense pedaling and two minutes of slow pedaling. So, just to be clear, it was one minute of all-out work and 10 minutes of total exercise. Not bad, huh? After 12 weeks, the scientists re-examined the participants’ aerobic fitness, muscles and blood-sugar control where they found that the gains of Group 2 and Group 3 were virtually identical. As a matter of fact, men in both groups increased their oxygen uptake by nearly 20 percent, in addition to improving their insulin sensitivity and skeletal muscle content.

So what does this mean for you, busy person who swears there’s no time to work out? If you want to improve fitness and don’t have an hour to exercise, it’s definitely possible to get fit in less time, IF you really push yourself during your workouts. Just find a regular workout routine you like and stick to it. If you’re willing to put in the work, hoolio is the place to be as its full of short, but intense workouts. Why not try our HIIT video workouts from leading trainers? Time is finally on your side!

You can read the whole study here.

Short on time?

Head over to hoolio for quick and effective 10-minute workouts.

Also if you like what you just read, please hit ♡ so that others might stumble upon this.