The 7 minute workout

Not enough time to workout?

What if all it took was 7 minutes? What if you could reap the benefits of running and weight bearing exercise without all of the expensive equipment, gym contracts and slogging away on a treadmill for hours on end?

Exciting new evidence has been found by scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Their research shows that even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscle comparable to those of several hours of bike riding or running.

Exercise Physiology is fascinating to hear about, but knowing how to put the latest research into practice can be tricky. But the good news is, an article in the American College of Sports Medicine‘s Health & Fitness Journal does just that. With 12 exercises using only your body weight, a chair, and a wall, it fulfils the latest mandates for the 7 minute high intensity work out. And by high intensity, Chris Jordan and his colleagues mean intense periods intermingled with periods of recovery. Their program alternates exercises that utilise large muscles in the upper body with those of the lower body, with 10 seconds to catch your breath in between. The exercises should be performed for 30 seconds in rapid succession, with an intensity of 8 out of 10 on a discomfort scale, Jordan says.

While the old saying ‘no pain, no gain’ holds true, having no time for exercise becomes a thing of the past. So get some friends together, or do it alone and get intense for 7minutes to reap all of the enormous health and fitness benefits from high intensity interval training.