Health

1 ​minute of intense exercise ​may keep doctor away​

By BIG WIRE

Posted on April 28, 2016

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

If you do not have enough time or you are just lazy and skipping exercise here is a news that may make you cheerful.

A study of McMaster University in Canada has found that a single minute of very intense exercise may produce the same results that you get by doing 45 minutes of continuous cycling at a moderate pace.

Even you can do a quick and effective workout by climbing a few flights of stairs on your lunch hour and get the necessary health benefits.

Researchers led by Martin Gibala set out to determine how sprint interval training (SIT) compared to moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), as recommended in public health guidelines.

SIT was a time-efficient exercise strategy to improve insulin sensitivity and other indices of cardio-metabolic health to the same extent as traditional MICT.

SIT involved one minute of intense exercise within a 10-minute time commitment, whereas MICT involved 50 minutes of continuous exercise per session.

The study appeared online in the journal PLOS ONE, compared the SIT protocol with a group who performed 45 minutes of continuous cycling at a moderate pace, plus the same warm-up and cool down.

The researchers examined key health indicators including cardio-respiratory fitness and insulin sensitivity, a measure of how the body regulates blood sugar.

After 12 weeks of training, the results were remarkably similar, even though the MICT protocol involved five times as much exercise and a five-fold greater time commitment, reported The Daily News, maintained by the University’s public relations.

“Most people cite ‘lack of time’ as the main reason for not being active”, Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at the university and the lead author of the study has been quoted as saying.

“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.”

Gibala has been studying interval training for more than a decade.

Big Wire

NB: Do you have a story and want to share with us? Do you want to report any concern over accuracy?  send us an email to [email protected] and [email protected]