With bite-sized workouts you’re just a hop, skip and a jump away from a full-body sweat sesh
WE'RE a long way from “normal life” – remember the days of hitting a spin class after doing the school run, or heading to the gym at lunch for an hour-long workout?
So it’s no wonder that 40% of people have been doing less exercise and 19% have indulged in more TV and video gaming compared to spring 2020, thanks to freezing temperatures and dark nights.*
Try as we might to rack up our NHS-recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week, living-room workouts and Zoom classes don’t always motivate us to don our Lycra and hit the yoga mat. Which is where “exercise snacking” comes in.
It’s all about short bursts of exercise throughout the day, and since gyms have been shut, more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon.
“With lockdown, the popularity of home workouts has boomed,” says sports physiologist Tom Cowan.
“My clients now have more time because they are not commuting… but some are finding it hard to stay motivated.
On top of that, they are less active in general, as they are not walking to the train station or moving around an office. But with a greater emphasis on health and wellbeing now, they’re still looking for ways to easily fit exercise into their lives.”
FEEL THE BURN
The good news is that you don’t have to slog it out in a 60-minute stint – but the bad news is that exercise snacking doesn’t involve any actual snacks!
While it would be natural to assume that less exercise would mean poorer results, the science says otherwise.
In a study by the University of Bath, four weeks of exercising for five minutes twice a day increased the number of sit-to-stand repetitions participants could complete in 60 seconds by an impressive 30%, while leg strength and power increased by 5% and 6% respectively, and thigh-muscle size by 2%.
“Exercise snacking is great for those with busy lifestyles and for those with chronic fatigue who can’t handle prolonged activity,” Tom explains.
“Performing at a high intensity, with a few hours of rest before performing another high-intensity ‘snack’, burns more calories than moderate-intensity exercise, improves fitness levels, boosts cardiovascular health and increases energy levels.
“And if that wasn’t enough, by raising our metabolic rate through exercise, we continue to burn calories long after we’ve stopped, which is known as the ‘afterburn effect’.”
GRAB A SNACK
You may have spent a month’s salary on home-gym equipment, but Tom suggests that less is more when it comes to bite-sized fitness.
“Some exercises work better than others when you only have a short period of time. Those such as back squats or chest presses with a barbell may be less suited to being performed quickly. Instead, opt for cardiovascular exercises, such as star jumps, running up and down the stairs, jogging or marching on the spot, or walking or running around the block.
“If you are looking to develop your muscle mass, then you may decide to incorporate bodyweight strength exercises within your exercise snacks, such as press-ups, squats, lunges or sit-ups.
“You can also break down every snack into different goals – the first could be cardio (star jumps), the second might be for toning (press-ups), the third could be a lower-body workout with squats, and the fourth might be a combination of them all.”
Sounds like a fitness feast!
ON THE CLOCK
Torching calories while you rest may sound too good to be true, but research has suggested that the timing of your exercise snack could also provide extra brownie points for those with diabetes.
In a study examining the benefits of exercise snacking, researchers compared the blood sugar levels of participants when they exercised for 30 continuous minutes with when they broke their exercise up into three small portions performed shortly before breakfast, lunch and dinner.
They found exercise snacking helped lower blood sugar for about 24 hours and did much better than the continuous 30-minute exercise sessions.**
It’s a promising step towards tackling scientists’ predictions that 5 million people in the UK could suffer from diabetes by 2025.
MOVE IT, MOVE IT
Blame the weather, Netflix or a global pandemic, but a recent YouGov survey reported that a quarter of Brits don’t even do 30 minutes of exercise a week.
While a 10k run may seem a little ambitious at first, a session of 10 squats is a more manageable way to get the heart rate up.
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“I find that one of the most common problems with many clients, both pre- and during lockdown, is that they will do a high-intensity class, drive their bodies into a state of cortisol shock and then spend the rest of their day being sedentary and eating to compensate for their tiredness and lack of energy,” says Barry’s Bootcamp instructor Samantha Stone.
“Balance is something that should always be the driving factor with fitness and nutrition. It’s important to regularly change your activities to keep things interesting and stop your body plateauing as a result of doing the same exercises over and over.
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“So not only will exercise snacking help to combat that, but it is also perfect for the set of circumstances we currently find ourselves in!”
A DAY OF EXERCISE SNACKING
Turn your everyday chores into a full-body workout with these manageable moves.
Snack 1: For every shelf you dust, do 10 squats with bicep curls; for every surface you clean, do 10 burpees; and use a vigorous vacuuming routine as your cardio finisher.
Snack 2: Jog on the spot for three minutes while the kettle boils.
Snack 3: Perform two sets of 15 sit-ups while lunch is cooking.
Snack 4: Do 20 tricep dips at your desk.
Snack 5: Tackle two sets of 10 mountain climbers, 10 press-ups and 10 lunges while dinner cooks.
Snack 6: Do 30 star jumps after brushing your teeth.
Photography: Getty Images Sources: *University College London **Diabetologia For more information, visit Tom Cowan (), Barry’s Bootcamp ()
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