A different kind of healthy “snack” – why even short bursts of exercise daily are beneficial
In the 1980s, Jane Fonda popularized the term “no pain, no gain” in her aerobic exercise routine, but newer research shows that’s not the only way to become more fit. Researchers have found that even short bursts of exercise, commonly dubbed “exercise snacks,” can decrease both heart disease and mortality.
A United Kingdom study of 25,241 people with a mean average age of 61 years of age showed that even three bouts of vigorous exercise for one to two minutes was linked with a 39 percent lower risk of all-cause and cancer mortality and a 49 percent lower cardiovascular risk.
The study participants all wore wearable devices to track their physical movement over an average follow-up of 6.9 years. The study found that the participants did not regularly exercise or even perceive that they had actually done any exercise. The activities they did included regular activities such as hustling to catch a bus or climbing a set of stairs.
“This is 100 percent real and it is great research,” said physical therapist Catherine Hoell, PT, DPT, OCS, a lead clinical therapist at Cape Cod Hospital Rehabilitation Center and the CCHC Golf Performance Center.
“I think it’s another great way for people to fit in their fitness with their busy lives,” she said “Taking those little breaks helps you mentally and physically. It gets the blood flow going, and it can make you more productive during the day. Even just doing one minute of exercise, whether it’s sit and stands or going up on your toes 10 times, offers benefits.”
Hoell recently completed a course on improving physical fitness in elderly adults and that’s where she learned about exercise snacks. In the course, she learned that 15 minutes of circuit training whole body exercises is optimal for an exercise snack. Even though you will see benefits with as little as a one-minute burst, obviously the more time you invest in physical activity the greater the results.
Greatest Gains
The greatest gains from exercise snacks occurs in older adults who are sedentary, she said. Younger people who are already physically fit won’t see the same type of gain. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great goal for younger people, especially those who sit behind a desk all day.
“If you are sedentary, one to two minutes, six to seven times throughout the day is going to give you great gains,” Hoell said. “Any way you can incorporate physical activity into your daily life, the research is overwhelming that it improves the quality of your life and extends longevity as well.”
She recommends that anyone who wants to start doing exercise snacks start by getting evaluated by a movement specialist like a physical therapist or a personal trainer. They will be able to prescribe which exercises would be best for your individual health. For example, with older patients, she recommends exercises that are functional versus isolating exercises, although both are important.
“Sit to stand is a great exercise because that’s functional,” Hoell said. “If you can sit to stand, that’s going to keep you independent into your golden years because that’s getting up independently out of a chair, getting off the toilet and getting out of bed. So certainly, I recommend functional-based exercises.”
Get Started
One of the biggest benefits that she sees with exercise snacks is that if you break exercise down into snack-size portions, people are more apt to do them. But she also thinks that a lot of people won’t get started because it’s too easy and it feels like a waste of time.
“I think just knowing that it is making a difference is more motivating,” Hoell said. “You can commit to two 15 minutes a lot easier than you could to 30 to 45 minutes, and it likens to brushing our teeth. We all brush our teeth consistently. Number one, we learned it as a habit when we were young, and you do have to do exercise regularly to make it a habit. But if we all had to take 20 minutes to brush our teeth, half of us would just drop right out and say, ‘I’ll take the cavities when they come.’ But because it literally only takes us two minutes, we will do it.”
At the CCHC Golf Performance Center, Hoell helps clients with their body swing connection so their performance has more power and they can hit the ball farther and more consistently with less pain. But even there, she regularly recommends exercise snacks.
“It also really works for golf performance,” she said. “I give these exercise snacks because I always joke, ‘We’re golfers. We don’t want to be exercising. We want to be golfing.’ So, I have to make the programs short and efficient so that they’ll do them.”
