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)
