Many people know that exercise is good for the body. People who want to improve their health through exercise generally pay special attention to the duration of exercise and feel that only long-term exercise can be effective. This also makes many people discourage or give up halfway. A recent study found that there is a kind of physical activity that has significant fitness effects as long as it lasts for more than 60 seconds! The study, published in The Lancet, collected movement parameters (recorded by wearing accelerometers) from more than 25,000 people. These people have one thing in common —— they don’t like to exercise.

The study focused on analyzing the relationship between moderate-to-high-intensity intermittent physical activity (MV-ILPA in English) and the risk of all-cause mortality and the risk of cardiovascular disease among this group of people who do not like to exercise (do not exercise in their free time).

During the eight years of follow-up, these individuals performed moderate-to-high-intensity intermittent physical activity for an average of 26.8 minutes per day.

59.7% of people lasted less than 1 minute each time,27.5%lasted 1 to 3 minutes each time,5.7%lasted 3 to 5 minutes each time, and 4.4% lasted 5 to 10 minutes each time.

• Compared with those whose sessions lasted less than 1 minute, those whose sessions lasted 1 to 3 minutes had a 34% lower risk of death, those whose sessions lasted 3 to 5 minutes had a 44% lower risk of death, and those who lasted 5 to 5 minutes had a 44% lower risk of death. For 10 minutes, the risk of death is reduced by 52%!
• Regarding the risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those who lasted for less than 1 minute, those who lasted for 1 to 3 minutes had a 29% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and those who lasted for 3 to 5 minutes had a 38% lower risk of death. And those who lasted for 5 to 10 minutes each time had a 41% lower risk of death.

In other words, even for people who don’t like to exercise, as long as they persist in intermittent physical activity of moderate to high intensity for more than 60 seconds a day, they can significantly reduce the risk of many adverse cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality.

Currently, the definition of moderate-to-high-intensity intermittent physical activity is that each session lasts less than 10 minutes, reaches moderate to vigorous exercise intensity, and is performed intermittently, that is, “short and sporadic” moderate-to-high-intensity activities in daily life. For example, brisk walking on the way to work, climbing stairs, running while walking the dog, and doing some strenuous housework.

As long as the intensity of the exercise reaches the standard, there is no need to worry about the duration of each exercise. After all, it is easy to do more than 60 seconds.

Of course, if you see this, you are attracted by this kind of exercise mode and want to do some more professional training. We also found a set of training movements that are close to “moderate-to-high-intensity intermittent physical activity.”

That is, Tabata training (Tabata), which belongs to the recently popular high-intensity interval training (full, fast, explosive exercise in a short period).

Tabata training is very simple. It consists of several action combinations, such as high leg raises on the spot, jumping jacks, etc. It consists of 20 seconds of high-intensity (exerting all your strength) training and 10 seconds of interval. It is repeated for 8 rounds. One set of training only requires 4 minutes.