3 Minutes Of Exercise Is All You Need | Physical activities articles | Well Being center

Do you exercise as much as you think you should, or do you follow the usual recommendations for weekly exercise to maintain good health? The most common reason people give for not exercising regularly is a lack of time. Who has time to go to the gym several times a week or spend hours walking, jogging or running? But what if it was possible to get the same health benefits from just three minutes of exercise a day?

An exercise regime known as High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which has already been used for years by athletes to improve performance, may offer the rest of us such a heaven-sent solution.

What’s involved in High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)?

The idea is to exercise at high intensity for very brief periods which are separated by rest, or low intensity exercise. The exercise should be aerobic and common examples are cycling on an exercise bike, running up and down stairs, or on the spot.

What are the benefits?

Researchers at the University of Bath in the UK found that HIIT improved glycemic control — or in other words that it lowered blood glucose levels, which means that HIIT could be effective in preventing type 2 diabetes.

The results of their study showed that in sedentary but healthy young men, regular HIIT sessions reduced glucose and insulin levels in the blood and increased insulin sensitivity by 23 percent. A lack of sensitivity of cells to insulin ultimately leads to the development and worsening of type 2 diabetes. It means that sugar (glucose) cannot get into cells to be used as energy, but instead accumulates in the blood. This build-up of glucose can become toxic to tissues like the eyes and kidneys and leads to a build-up of fat around our organs.

Professor James Timmons of Nottingham University is one of the researchers in an ongoing European study of HIIT in middle-aged people. He said: ‘The science is developing on High-Intensity Interval training. Yes, it is really good at improving glucose uptake into the muscles in a very, very short time.’

Martin Gibala from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who has been researching HIIT for over a decade says:

‘A growing body of evidence demonstrates that HIIT can serve as an effective alternative to traditional endurance-based training, inducing similar or even superior physiological adaptations.’

HIIT may also help to burn fat

Professor Timmons added: ‘With really intense exercise, you release hormones that can help break down fat. This may help burn that fat over time, after HIIT is done. Also, we think, but don’t know, that HIIT will subdue appetite, while traditional exercise (jogging etc) will stimulate appetite. This last point is key and will be researched by our team.’

The effect of HIIT on body fat was shown in a study of healthy overweight women. After performing HIIT for 15 weeks, the women who participated in the study lost more fat from their trunks and legs and reduced body mass, total body fat and insulin levels, compared with women who carried out traditional exercise regimens for longer periods of time.

Try HIIT For Yourself

Cycling on an exercise bike is recommended as the best form of HIIT as it uses major muscles groups and is kind to the joints. Warm up for two minutes, then cycle for all your worth for 20-30 seconds and then rest or reduce intensity for one minute. Repeated three times, this adds up to one minute of intense exercise. Repeated three times a week, this exercise routine will take just three minutes of exercise a day.

Many different variations of the same principle can be found. In the study of overweight women we already mentioned, the participates alternated bouts of intense cycling lasting just 8 seconds with lower intensity pedaling for 12 seconds. These were alternated up to a maximum of 20 minutes and three of these sessions were carried out per week.

Rapid performance benefits

Athletes have practiced HIIT for a long time as a means of rapidly enhancing performance.

But studies in non-athletes have also found that aerobic performance increases rapidly with HIIT – in as little as two weeks.

In the studies the degree of resistance to pedaling was gradually increased, as performance improved, but it is not clear if this is needed to achieve and maintain health benefits or just desirable.

What are the downsides to HIIT?

Although the rapid improvements in exercise performance in HIITs studies will have been accompanied by an increase in muscle strength and tone, these exercise routines are not intended to build muscle. So if bulging biceps or pecs are your goal, it might be back to the gym for you. HIIT can still help you, but it shouldn't form the core of your fitness routine.

A more worrying aspect of HIIT is the case of a British journalist, Andrew Marr, who suffered a stroke at the age of 53, after carrying out HIIT on a rowing machine.

He has now made a complete recovery but found out that he had suffered two warning attacks prior to the one that put him in hospital. He was unaware of these previous attacks, which are known as transient ischemic attacks (also known as a TIA or mini stroke), caused by interruption of blood flow to the brain.

Precautions to take before you try HIIT for the first time

See your doctor first before trying HIIT, especially if you have high blood pressure or have not had your blood pressure checked recently. This is an important step to take because high blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke and there have been cases of people suffering a burst blood vessel during vigorous exercise. (Stroke, which is a lack of blood to the brain can be caused by a blockage - or a bleed - into the brain).

Do warm up before you practice HIIT, to ensure you don’t damage your muscles as you exercise and your routine unfolds safely.

See your doctor if you experience any adverse symptoms during the high-intensity exercise or feel at all unwell afterwards, and stop exercising when you feel unwell.