One Minute of Intense Exercise Comparable To 45-Minute Routine

By Jenn Loro - 29 Apr '16 14:22PM

The quick pace and the stressful nature of modern life puts a lot of strain on people's time and energy. As people try to cope with the pressures and demands of work and personal life, faithfully sticking to a consistent exercise regimen is simply overtaxing.

Oftentimes, people would just simply excuse their way out of a planned exercise saying that there's just not enough time.

This time, however, not having enough may no longer be acceptable. According to a recently published Canadian-led study featured in PLOS One, all it takes to see effective results from exercise is just one minute of intense workout three times a week. A group of McMaster University-based fitness experts and scientists has come to a conclusion that just sixty seconds of intense workout can yield same results as the conventional endurance training does.

"This is a very time-efficient workout strategy. Brief bursts of intense exercise are remarkably effective," remarked lead author Prof. Martin Gabala as quoted by Big Think.

The research involved getting 27 out-of-shape male participants with sedentary lifestyles to exercise. They were grouped into two with one group doing three sessions of weekly sprint interval training. The exercise regimen for this group entailed three 20-second cycling bursts followed by two-minute slow cycling. The other one was subjected to 45 minutes of continuous and moderate-intensity cycling.

Both groups start their 12-week workout routine with a warm-up for two minutes and a cool-down for three minutes. As part of the observation, the researchers monitored the participants' health indicators such as their cardiorespiratory fitness, skeletal muscle content, and insulin sensitivity.

Remarkably, the participants in both groups yielded similar results despite the second one having more time and commitment to intense training. Furthermore, they all increased their uptake of oxygen by 19% with results showing an improvement to their insular sensitivity and skeletal muscle content.

"Most people cite 'lack of time' as the main reason for not being active. Our study shows that an interval-based approach can be more efficient - you can get health and fitness benefits comparable to the traditional approach, in less time," Gabala pointed out as quoted by Business Insider.