No time to hit the gym? Try a micro workout

“Don’t forget to smile and curse all at the same time,” Sangita Patel reminds her followers in the caption of one of her popular “Fitness Tuesday” videos. In this one, the television host is using just a single weight and a yoga mat, cycling through a routine of squat variations. It’s beginner-friendly, low-barrier-to-entry and – this is crucial – quick.

Patel’s clips are each about a minute long and ranging from original workouts to viral fitness challenges (like trying to balance on one foot in a deep squat while putting a sock on the other). Her inbox is flooded with messages from followers either filming their own attempts or sharing what the push to get off the couch, even for just 60 seconds, has done for them.

“If people don’t do my workouts, at least I’m getting them to stand up and do one of these challenges,” she said. “Even if you can’t do it, you’re getting up to try it. And that’s saying to me that you’re willing to work out.”

On average, Canadian adults are sedentary for 9.6 hours of their day. That can pose risks including elevated all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, cancer risk, metabolic disease risk, and musculoskeletal diseases like knee pain and osteoporosis. Even those who exercise before or after work aren’t immune if they spend the rest of the day in a desk chair.

Current guidelines suggest accumulating at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week but that number can feel daunting. The good news? Recent research suggests you can get many of the same benefits of a longer routine by breaking it down into bite-sized chunks of 10 minutes or less – or even as short as 60 seconds – known as micro workouts or “exercise snacks.”

“You don’t necessarily have to accrue 150 minutes in a traditional way to maintain a level of activity that can have positive impacts on your health,” says Matthew Stork, a research scientist at lululemon who co-led a study on the efficacy of “exercise snacks” during his tenure as a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

What are some of the benefits?

When researchers at McMaster University had 24 sedentary adults perform three bouts per day of vigorous stair climbing, separated by 1 to 4 hours of recovery three days a week for six weeks, they noticed small but meaningful improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness.

Another study, published in the journal Nature in 2022, examined the longer-term impact of this kind of exercise by tasking 25,241 men and women (median age 61.8 years) with adding three bouts of one or two minutes of vigorous movement into their daily life. Nearly seven years later, they observed a 38 to 40 per cent reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 48 to 49 per cent reduction in cardiovascular disease mortality risk, compared with participants who engaged in no intermittent vigorous movement. The study noted that small doses of vigorous exercise can have “rapid and measurable effects on cardiorespiratory fitness,” which can affect cardiovascular disease risk, and may also explain the reduction in cancer mortality risk.

There may be mental benefits to this kind of movement as well. Stork’s study, which had 12 sedentary office workers engage in short bouts of stair climbing, found that from a behavioural standpoint, this type of training began to shift movement habits: During a one-week follow-up period, the average number of times they stood up from their desks in a 24-hour period increased on the days when participants engaged in exercise snacks. Participants were also more likely to make movement a part of their day.

“They have a break between meetings, they can go and do a snack,” Stork says of the after-effects on participants. Others simply made movement a part of existing tasks. “They more naturally work it into their day. ‘Oh, I’ve got to go up to the third floor, might as well just do a snack now.’”

How can you start working micro workouts into your day?

Remove one of the biggest barriers – choice overload – by keeping a list of quick go-to workouts on your phone. Then set a goal for how many times you’ll try to get in some movement throughout each day.

Patel recommends making yourself a priority. “You’re allowed to spend time on yourself. Your kids are going to be fine. The house is going to be fine. Just take a moment. I always say, ‘If you can brush your teeth, you can work out.’ It’s just making sure you’re consistent.”

When you’re ready to get started, Michelle Dukowski, a health coach and the co-founder of Toronto’s RedLeaf Fitness, suggests doing compound movements that “use more than one joint and require multiple muscle groups to work together at the same time,” like bodyweight squats and pushups. “Keep your rests short and infrequent, and – with good technique – try to accomplish as many reps as you can.”

If you’re comfortable adding weights, do so. “The greater the stimulus the more change it will cause in your body,” Dukowski adds.

For exercise snacks, think of anything that will get you moving consistently for 60 seconds. If you’re new to working out, that could be a brisk walk. If that feels too easy, try stair climbing, burpees, kettlebell swings or bodyweight squats.

Ready to go a little longer? Here are two beginner-friendly micro workouts Dukowski recommends.

Bodyweight: Set up a Tabata timer (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for four minutes) and alternate bodyweight squats and pushups as follows: 20 seconds of squats, 10 seconds rest, 20 seconds of pushups, 10 seconds rest. Keep going for eight rounds (four minutes total)

Dumbbells: Grab a pair of dumbbells at a challenging weight but one you feel confident using for a seven-minute workout. Complete as many rounds as possible of: 20 alternating lunges, 15 bent-over rows, 10 overhead presses and five burpees. At the seven-minute mark, put the dumbbells down and do as many sit-ups as possible in 60 seconds.

Alyssa Ages is a journalist and the author of Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength. She is also a strongman competitor and endurance athlete, as well as a former personal trainer and group fitness instructor.