With enormous apologies to the Hollies for paraphrasing their famous song but is it true? Can you really be fit in just 4minutes?
The evidence is growing that you really can make life defining changes with just 4minutes of exercise – 3 times per week.
We have already looked, briefly (much more still to come), at Tabata. So, as you know, Tabata is based on beyond maximal effort in just 8 x 30s exercise and rest sets. While Tabata is fantastic it is probably best suited for athletes seeking to improve their performance rather than the more average person.
The article below cites research from Martin Gabala of Masters University, Canada that shows that HIIT, performed at a lesser intensity to Tabata, delivers significant improvements in fitness.
Read the article below and let us know what you think.
A Workout in Four Minutes
If your typical excuse for not exercising is a lack of time, you may need a new one. Research has shown that even a four-minute workout – or one that requires as little as seven minutes of your time three times a week – does the same job as 30 minutes of exercise three or more days per week. They key is giving the short workout maximal effort and repeating it several times, which is why it is called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT.
Photo by Antony McCallum under CC 3.0 via Wikipedia
The first study showing that HIIT can make you fit quickly came from Canada’s McMaster University. Physiologist Martin Gibala Ph.D. and his team found that three-minute intervals on a stationary bike – 30 seconds of intense pedaling followed by a brief rest, repeated five or six times – led to the same muscle-cell adaptations as a bike ride lasting much longer, an hour and a half to two hours.
The next year, Dr. Gibala’s group reported that HIIT worked better for fat-burning than did conventional aerobics. Participants in this study were divided into two teams. One did 20 weeks of conventional aerobics while the other did 15 weeks of HIIT. The first group burned 48 percent more calories per session than the HIIT group, but those in the HIIT group burned 900 percent more fat over the 15 weeks than the first group burned in 20 weeks.
Since then, more and more studies have shown that HIIT can match the effects of longer, more leisurely workouts if you’re willing to push yourself really, really hard for a few minutes a few times a week.
In an article in the American College of Sports’ Medicine Journal’s May 2013 issue, performance coach Brett Klika and exercise physiologist Chris Jordan described how you can cram a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training into seven minutes using your body weight instead of machines or free weights…
If your typical excuse for not exercising is a lack of time, you may need a new one. Research has shown that even a four-minute workout – or one that requires as little as seven minutes of your time three times a week – does the same job as 30 minutes of exercise three or more days per week. They key is giving the short workout maximal effort and repeating it several times, which is why it is called High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT.
