If you don't have a lot of time during the day to work out for a full hour, you may benefit from trying out an exercise snack this American Heart Month. These exercises are quick, high-intensity bursts of movement lasting a minute or less, performed sporadically throughout the day. These short bursts of activity can provide many of the same cardiovascular and fitness benefits as a full-length workout-helping you stay active without disrupting your day.
Research has shown that 1 or 2 minutes of vigorous exercise in intervals throughout the day can improve your heart health by boosting your cardiovascular fitness. Exercise snacks replicate the benefits of high-intensity interval training, but with longer rest periods. Instead of exercising for 20 or 30 minutes, as you normally would during a HIIT workout, you can do these movements throughout the day.
A UK study found that those who participated in vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (three bouts of 1 to 2 minutes of vigorous exercise daily) reduced their risk of death from cancer or other causes by 38% to 40%. Other benefits it found were that participants reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 48% to 49%. Another study examined healthy older adults and observed how exercise snacking improved their leg muscle power and size over the 28-day program. In other words, you can still get all the benefits of exercise snacking regardless of your age or fitness level.
If you don't have time to commit to a full-hour workout daily, here are exercise snack ideas you can do instead. They're easy enough to do anywhere throughout the day.
Read more: How Healthy Is Your Heart? Find Out at Home Without Any Equipment
1. Take the stairs
If you live in an apartment building, have stairs in your home or if they're part of your commute, take advantage of them to increase your heart rate. Aim for vigorous stair climbing throughout the day when you have the time. One study showed improvement in patients with coronary artery disease when they did three rounds of climbing six flights of 12 stairs, with recovery periods of walking. The study compared how stair climbing and traditional moderate-intensity exercise affected participants' cardiorespiratory fitness.
Researchers found that stair climbers had a higher heart rate percentage across a shorter exercise time during the first four weeks of supervised testing. Both stair climbing and traditional moderate-intensity exercise groups continued their exercise routine for an additional eight weeks unsupervised and managed to maintain their heart rate level percentage. The difference was that the stair climbers continued to exercise for less time.
If climbing the stairs is the most exercise you can do during the day, you might as well do that exercise intentionally.
2. Go for a walk
Going for a brisk walk can keep your heart healthy. The Heart Foundation recommends aiming for at least 30 minutes of walking a day. To reap the same benefits, break your walking goal into 10 minutes at a time, three times daily. Just make sure it's a moderate to vigorous effort so you'll get your heart rate up.
3. Body weight exercises
If you work in an office or from home, chances are you spend a lot of time sitting. Taking the time to move, even if it's to get in some quick body weight workouts, can do wonders for your heart health. While taking breaks from your desk, set up an interval timer and play around with body weight squats, lunges, push-ups, jumping jacks, bear crawls, planks and more.
4. Jump rope
Sometimes getting in touch with your inner child is a helpful way to get motivated to exercise. Jumping rope is a fun way to get your heart rate up while improving your cardiovascular health in short periods of time. One idea suggested by Nike Master Trainer Joe Holder is to pick up a jump rope and jump for five rounds of 1 minute each, playing around either with the intensity or variety of jumping. The more you improve your cardio fitness, the more you can increase your workout time to keep yourself challenged.
5. Do some chores
Believe it or not, you can get a good workout by doing some chores around your home. Whether that's gardening, vacuuming, cleaning or organizing your drawers and cabinets, you can get the benefits of a workout while keeping your life in order. It goes to show that you don't need a gym to get a workout in, especially when plenty of everyday activities count as exercise and you may not realize it.
