There’s new research out that suggests that you can make significant and measurable changes to your fitness. This research has uncovered how to be healthy without having to spend large amounts of time exercising…in just 3 minutes a week.
Yes…just 3 minutes of exercise a week!
To achieve this, it requires you to do High Intensity Training (HIT). In longer, more regular bursts, it can also be used to burn fat too. Science shows that low intensity, long repetition exercise is much more efficient at burning fat. However, for many people it’s a time-sink — it uses up far too much time.
Using HIT can help you burn more absolute amounts of fat in a shorter amount of time and you can improve your insulin sensitivity. It’s a great way for everyone to be healthy.
How does it work?
- When you perform high intensity exercise, you use a lot more of your body’s muscles; around 80% of your body’s muscles are active.
- It moves sugar from blood into the muscle so that it can be readily burned.
- It releases adrenaline which acts as an appetite suppressant.
- You can release hormones that break down fat.
- High intensity exercise causes microscopic tears in your muscles as it strengthens. This healing uses up calories.
- Insulin regulation occurs due to release of growth factors such as IGF-1.
- Metabolic rate increases, which means you will burn more calories when resting.
How do you do it?
There are several exercises that can be done to do this. Here’s just one example that you can follow:
The Exercise Bike
- 2 minutes of gentle cycling to warm up on the bike
- Go flat out for 30 seconds
- 2 more minutes of gentle cycling to catch your breath
- Go flat out for 30 seconds
- 2 more minutes
- Flat out for the last 30 seconds
And that’s it.
Okay, so this is basically 6 minutes of gentle exercise and 1.5 minutes of HIT, but you can adjust it to suit your needs. The HIT part of the exercise should not last longer than 30 seconds for each time. Do this once a week to help keep insulin levels healthier. If you want to burn fat, you want to be doing this a bit more regularly (like 2-3 times a week).
“HIT is really good at improving glucose uptake into the muscles in a very, very short time,” Professor James Timmons, leading the research at Birmingham, said. “With really intense exercise, you release hormones that can help break down fat. This may help burn that fat over time, after HIT is done.”
UPDATE: Added link to the research
(Photo credit: Woman Showing how Much Weight She Lost via Shutterstock)
“It’s a great way for everyone to be healthy!” Everyone except the 20% of the population not genetically predisposed to respond to HIT. They may still see some improvement in insulin sensitivity, but no cardio-pulmonary or muscular effects.
Yes, that’s for cardio-vascular fitness, still potentially applicable for fat-burn.
Wow, I’d expected better out of you than this type of article. You don’t even link to the so-called “research” supporting your post? Skeptical, to say the least – this sounds more like one of those late night infomercials. So much of research around weight loss and exercise is garbage, using poor methodologies, limited sample sizes, etc.
Disappointed to see this type of a post out of what is normally my favorite blog.
Greg,
I’m sorry we let you down with this one. We’ll be sure to incorporate more support to these types of posts going forward.
Sorry to let you down. I’ve added a link to the research, It’s from the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Previous research (from McMaster University in Canada) used rats, but this one was conducted on humans.
Thank you for sharing the link. I am skeptical about the study but can’t download the full version as I don’t have a subscription. For one, it shows an insulin sensitivity effect in men but not in women – you didn’t mention that in your article. Second, the tie between “burning fat” and weight loss is thin (pun intended) at best – generally speaking, if the exercise you perform is in the “fat burning” zone, you end up leaving glycogen (carbohydrates) behind, which ultimately turn back into fat.
I will admit that you are careful not to imply “weight loss” directly, but emphasizing the better burning of fat through this approach will imply weight loss to most readers. Weight loss itself is 90% (or more) about burning more calories than you consume – there are no short cuts around that.
Yes, the basic formula for weight loss is energy output > energy input.
But how this occurs varies for each individual with different efficiencies. How you work your body also changes the energy output equation, as well as how you change the energy input. e.g. There is research (can find link later) that demonstrates that Atkins works to help weight loss because the prolonged excess consumption of certain types of proteins acts as a mild appetite supressant whcih reduces energy input in the long run. This doesn’t mean the diet is healthy, because a poorly constructed diet can have other health negatives.
In terms of reducing energy input there are small tricks that work e.g. eating directly after intense training because the body’s metabolic rate is accelerated, and adrenaline is still pumping which means you will eat less and burn more of what you are eating.
Likewise for efficient energy output, the timing and type of diet you have is important, a carb loaded meal 4-5 hours before intense exercise means your body can work more efficiently which means you can maximise energy output.
Thats a good question .. some people think go all protein like on the
adkins diet .. but using protein in the right food combinations with the
right carbs is the way to burn fat .
Yes ,you are right at the point that “HIT is really good at improving glucose uptake into the muscles in a very, very short time,”
HIT is for real, it’s been tried and tested, however only a certain amount of the worlds population respond to it, responders. It does work, even if you are not a responder, in terms of burning visceral fat etc it will still improve recovery rate and staminer. There are test that can be done over a short period of time to find out if one is a responder to HIT, usually around 6 weeks.
The army has been using HIT for a long time, I can tell you, as a responder…..it works and works exceedingly well.