How little exercise can I get away with? One minute it seems...

_Tombstone_

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/how-little-exercise-can-i-get-away-with-one-minute-it-seems-1.2636563?ref=yfp

Good new study on interval training with a control group, Insulin testing, Biopsies and all that jazz.

Control group did nothing new. Another group plods along on a bike for 45 mins including warm up, cool down. The third group cycles for 10mins with a couple of MAX POWA 20 second bursts thrown in.

In both groups, endurance had increased by nearly 20 per cent; insulin resistance had improved significantly; and there were significant increases in the number and function of certain microscopic structures in the men’s muscles that are related to energy production and oxygen consumption.

There were no changes in health or fitness evident in the control group.

So, it seems three months of concerted endurance or interval exercise can notably, and almost identically, improve fitness and health.
According to Martin Gibala, the lead researcher: “If you are an elite athlete, then obviously incorporating both endurance and interval training into an overall programme maximises performance,” he said. “But if you are someone, like me, who just wants to boost health and fitness and you don’t have 45 minutes or an hour to work out, our data show that you can get big benefits from even a single minute of intense exercise.”

Mellor

I'm not massively surprised by that tbh.
Last week my cardio consisted of 10x100m sprints on the rower, with 1:40 rest. Total time was about 18 mins of which 3mins was work, 15 rest.
This week I did 5x100m and a mile run afterwards.

Something like 6x100m with that rest, or 8x w/1min rest would be 10mins. Do that a regularly long term and there's no way you wouldn't be "fitter".
The issue for most people isn't workout time, it's consistency

Dtp1979

Mellor wrote: »

I'm not massively surprised by that tbh.
Last week my cardio consisted of 10x100m sprints on the rower, with 1:40 rest. Total time was about 18 mins of which 3mins was work, 15 rest.
This week I did 5x100m and a mile run afterwards.

Something like 6x100m with that rest, or 8x w/1min rest would be 10mins. Do that a regularly long term and there's no way you wouldn't be "fitter".
The issue for most people isn't workout time, it's consistency

Is that once a week or a few times?

Mellor

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Is that once a week or a few times?

Personally I do that or something similar once a week. Along with 5 or 6 other sessions.

But if somebody wanted to get fit, with the shortest possible workouts. Then 8x100m w/1min rest, threes a week will definitely get results.
Max possible results, perhaps not. But a lot easier to stick to.

Alf Veedersane

Mellor wrote: »

Personally I do that or something similar once a week. Along with 5 or 6 other sessions.

But if somebody wanted to get fit, with the shortest possible workouts. Then 8x100m w/1min rest, threes a week will definitely get results.
Max possible results, perhaps not. But a lot easier to stick to.

I lost interest in getting in runs round the same routes last year for a couple of shortish running events so pretty much just upped my fitness through rowing and almost entirely through intervals of 30s of rowing with 30s rest (keeping to 150m+ for the 30s rowing). 10 rounds and more as I improved. Ended up with better times than I expected.

That said, more training would have got me better results.