All you need is 11-minutes and your own body weight. That was the conclusion a new study published recently in the International Journal of Exercise Science
1-minute of high intensity body weight exercise is followed by 1-minute active recovery. Repeat this sequence 5 times – and you’ll improve your fitness.
Here’s the workout the study used to confer those benefits:
- 1 minute of easy jumping jacks, to warm up
- 1 minute of modified burpees
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of high-knee running in place
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of split squat jumps
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of high-knee running in place
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of squat jumps
- 1 minute of walking in place, to cool down
That this type of workout is effective may not seem that surprising to many of you. Still – at a time when the majority of us are trying to increase or maintain our fitness by leaping around our kitchens mid-Zoom meetings – we hope the information reinforces that your efforts are not in vain.
The benefits of interval training have deep scientific roots. The majority of studies use treadmill running or stationary cycling. The beauty of this particular workout is it requires no equipment and very little space. You can do it in your living room or at the end of your driveway after you take the garbage out.
The only downside to the study’s protocol – is – as often happens – high intensity also equated to high impact. It doesn’t need to be this way. The point is to “really challenge” yourselves in terms of effort for 60 seconds so you feel you need the next 60 seconds to recover. You can swap out the work minutes with any exercise that really challenges you. You can also make the workout harder by slightly altering the ratio of challenge/recovery. For example, extend the high intensity interval by 5-10 seconds and take the same amount of time off the recovery. Take care however be sure you are pushing yourself hard enough that you need at least 30 seconds recovery. The benefits of interval training come from pushing your heart past your lactate threshold such that the intensity is NOT sustainable for longer than 90 seconds.
Check it out in our Trainer Moves below:
Trainer Moves of the Day:
Here the outline of our modified protocol:
- 1 minute of low impact, side to side jacks, to warm up
- 1 minute of: 10 plank jacks followed by standing and extending you arms over head. (We ended up having time to repeat this 4 times during the 1 minute.)
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 15 seconds of high knee drives followed by 15 seconds of butt kickers x 2
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of reverse lunges extending the arms over head
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of mountain climbers
- 1 minute of walking in place
- 1 minute of squats pulsing for 3 at the bottom of each squat
- 1 minute of walking in place, to cool down
