The majority of the human population all want to be able to do as little of exercise as possible. But is there really a way to get a great health benefit out of 1 minute of all-out exercise? The scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, performed an experiment to find out. They recruited 25 out-of-shape young men and measured their current aerobic fitness and, as a marker of general health, their body’s ability to use insulin properly to regulate blood sugar levels. The scientists also biopsied the men’s muscles to examine how well their muscles functioned at a cellular level.
The researchers randomly divided the men into three groups. One group changed nothing about their current sedentary lifestyle. they would be the control group.
A second group began what most people do when they go to the gym, a typical endurance-workout consisting of riding at a moderate pace on a stationary bicycle for 45 minutes, with a two-minute warm-up and three-minute cool down.
The final group was assigned to interval training with the entire workout lasting 10 minutes, with only one minute of that time being all-out strenuous.
By the end of the 12-week study, the endurance group had ridden for 27 hours, while the interval group had ridden for six hours, with only 36 minutes of that time being strenuous.
When the scientists retested the men’s aerobic fitness at the end of the 12-week study, they found that the exercisers showed virtually identical gains, whether they had completed the long endurance workouts or the short, grueling intervals. In both groups, endurance had increased by nearly 20 percent, insulin resistance likewise had improved significantly. And as expected, there were no changes in health or fitness evident in the control group.
Amazingly the study showed that an exercise routine consisting of only 60 seconds of strenuous exertion proved to be as successful at improving health and fitness as three-quarters of an hour of moderate exercise. Wow! At the eFitClub we are aware of these studies and have incorporated this into our fitness protocol with the 20 minute Sprint8 workout!
Get fit fast at the eFitClub today!