Forget the gym: Just 12 minutes' exercise a week is enough to stay fit, says study
Study finds that four minutes, three times a week could be enough to keep people fit
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Your support makes all the difference.Just twelve minutes of exercise a week could be enough to keep us healthy, new research published in the Public Library of Science One journal has found.
Four-minute bursts of vigorous exercise three times a week could raise oxygen intake levels and decrease blood pressure and glucose levels, a study conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has discovered.
During the ten week programme, a team of researchers monitored the effect of different exercise regimes using a sample of 26 inactive, overweight, but otherwise healthy men who were split into two groups.
Participants in the 1-AIT group undertook four-minute exercise sessions three times a week and showed similar results to the men in the 4-AIT who completed three 16 minute sessions, broken into four minute bouts.
Oxygen intake increased by similar amounts in both groups – 10 per cent in the four-minute exercise group and 13 per cent in the 16-minute group. However, the 16-minute exercise group did prove more effective at lowering cholesterol and body fat.
Researchers suggested that a single bout of strenuous exercise performed three times per week may be a time-efficient strategy to improve fitness and reduce blood pressure in previously inactive but otherwise healthy middle-aged individuals.
In the abstract, author Arnt Erik Tjønna said: “A growing body of evidence suggests that exercise training with low-volume but high-intensity may be a time-efficient means to achieve health benefits.
“The 1-AIT type of exercise training may be readily implemented as part of activities of daily living and could easily be translated into programs designed to improve public health.”
Exercising in this way could help create a safer way of maintaining personal fitness, after doctors recently expressed concerns that long, high endurance work outs could pose risks for people who are physically unfit.
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