Micro-workouts: The benefits of exercising in short bursts

If you, like so many others, struggle to find time to exercise throughout your day, micro-workouts might be just what you are looking for. Head below to learn more about the benefits of micro-workouts.

For so many people, carving out an hour during the day for exercise can feel like an impossible task, which is why micro-workouts are a nice way of dividing up that hour into smaller, more manageable chunks that add up to what would have been one full hour of exercise.

Micro-workouts: A definition

A micro-workout is exactly what it sounds like – a workout on a smaller scale. Also known as mini-workouts or even exercise “snacks,” a micro-workout is done multiple times throughout the day.

Walter Gjergja, a former professional athlete and chief wellness officer of Zing Coach:

Ideally, we want to total up to 15 minutes or more and spread that 15 minutes throughout the day. There is substantial research that shows that this type of very short but high-intensity bursts has a profound impact to our physiology, to our health, to all kinds of markers of of fitness.

According to Gjergja, micro-workouts can range from 20 to 60 seconds in length, or they can be around 3 to 7 minutes per session. The important thing is that a mini-workout needs to be over 20 seconds in order to maximize efficiency – a person could run in place for 20 seconds or run up a flight of stairs to fill that time effectively.

Benefits of micro-workouts

Getting some movement in throughout your day is always better than getting none, and engaging in micro-workouts is doing more for your body than remaining stagnant. According to Gjerga, using 3 to 7 minutes for a micro-workout allows you to embark upon “a mini journey of the three main areas of fitness”: cardiovascular, muscular, and flexibility.

There isn’t a wrong way to get involved in micro-workouts – you can do a few minutes of exercises that only require your own body strength such as jumping jacks, situps, crunches, push-ups, and so on. In thinking about the three main areas of fitness, you could do bodyweight squats for strength, jumping jacks for cardio, and finish off the few minutes with stretching for mobility.

Last year, a study published in JAMA Oncology found that doing (via CBS News):

…four to five minutes a day of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity — such as one- to two-minute bursts of fast walking or stair climbing — is associated with a “substantially lower cancer risk” compared to those who did no such activity.

The other really great thing about micro-workouts is that since they don’t require you to be in a gym or near any exercise equipment, they can be accomplished anywhere. At the very least, no matter where you are, you could start running in place, doing jumping jacks, and wrapping up with some bicycle crunches and stretches within the span of 3-7 minutes.