Physical activity is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as ‘any bodily movement produced by muscles that requires energy expenditure’. This should not be confused with ‘Exercise’ which is a subcategory of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive, and aimed at improving physical fitness. Beyond exercise, any other physical activity like walking, gardening or working has health benefits. This is good news for those who hate to ‘pound the footpath’, ‘feel the burn’ or ‘get sweaty’ even light-intensity walking, swimming, cycling, dance, gardening and resistance training provide health benefits. The fact is any regular movement is preferable to sitting still. ‘Physical Inactivity’ increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes by 20–30% and shortens lifespan by 3–5 years ((Wallbank et al. 2019: WHO 2019).
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We often hear that ‘some activity is better than none’ and ‘more is better than some.’ The current guidelines recommend 30-60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on at least 5 days of the week. But what is the dose? How much is enough? Is 25 minutes 3 or 4 days a week not worth the effort? At what point do the health benefits kick in?
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In busy lives 30-60 minutes per day of exercise can be overwhelming. We are all time poor and decision fatigued. Recent studies show that just as there is much flexibility in the type of physical activity to achieve health benefits, so too is time spent being active. Shifting a mindset of having to find and block out a minimum of one hour a day for exercise to shorter time slots of activity over a 24 hour period can make the overall goal achievable. For many that 1 hour of exercise includes finding a car park, changing clothes, showering, washing hair, finding someone to look after the kids, someone to cover you at work or missing out on already compromised sleep or family time. It turns out that one or several bouts of 8–10 minutes of aerobic or resistance activity during the day or over a couple of days have the same effect as a single bout of 30 minute sessions (More et al. 2015). Even less than 8 minutes can be effective with evidence showing regular 5-7 minutes of moderately-vigorous activity was helpful for weight maintenance in weight loss goals which rely on total energy expenditure throughout the day (Powell et al. 2010).
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The common misconception of a threshold of exercise needing to be accomplished to receive the health benefits now gives way to the fact that every kind of physical activity is beneficial to health and is effective immediately. The key is to start.
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So, if it’s been a while since you did some regular exercise or you’re starting to schedule in time for exercise, NOW is the best time to actually start! In fact, reductions in illness and injury appear to begin with the first increases in activity. Apparently just knowing you are planning exercise, attempting some extra activity in small amounts become their own internal motivator to continue and stick to regular exercise (Da Young et al. 2018). And yes, there is the possibility for activity-related adverse events such as pain, injury or accidents, but it’s important to remember that statistically the benefits of regular physical activity outweigh all the potential risks (Powell et al. 2010).
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OTHER BENEFITS of short bouts of exercise are:
1/ Those starting exercise from a sedentary lifestyle need to begin physical activity prudently with safe and effective low skill sessions requiring the least amount of alterations to existing lifestyles.
2/ The principles of exercise training regarding overload, progression and adaptation suggest that small and manageable initial increments of exercise allow for greater physical adaptation.
3/ For those with an existing training history, short bouts of strength or High intensity focused workouts can be easily slotted into a working day to help maintain weekly training volume goals.
4/ And my favourite: As a ‘lack of time’ is the most common reason not to be physically active, short bouts of simple, no fuss workouts offer an achievable solution.
The videos linked below are a 7 & 8 minute simple physical activity session that can be done in a small space, anywhere at anytime. They require no special clothes, shoes or equipment.
These short workouts require little skill and a low level of fitness. Each workout is scalable to individual levels with alternate movements demonstrated. If you have any queries about the movements or scaling options please call or email rose@rosecampbell.co
Rose’s 7 minute workout for anytime anywhere
Rose’s 8 minute workout for anytime anywhere
Enjoy!
References
Da Young t al. 2018, doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001734
Ekelund et al. 2016
Kraus et al 2019, doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001939
More et al. 2015, doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.0533
Powell et al. 2010, doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031210-101151
Pandey et al. 2015
Wallbank et al 2019, 10.1186/s12889-019-7514-6
The WHO (2019)
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