By The Gym Pod
- March 29, 2024
- Body Building, Fitness, Health and Fitness Guides, Strength Training and Conditioning
Exercise Snacks – Life Hack To Better Health And Fitness?
No Time To Workout – Try “Eating” An Exercise Snack
Exercise snacks are isolated bouts of vigorous exercise performed periodically throughout the day lasting less than 1-minute. The concept of exercise snacking has been growing in popularity due to the ease of implementing it into our lifestyles. Busy with work or bored at home? Simply do an exercise snack, which lasts less than a minute!
Why Do Exercise Snacks?
As a growing field in exercise science, exercise snacks have been found to be rather effective in sedentary individuals in improving their cardiorespiratory health. Some existing evidence already supports this; high intensity interval training (HIIT) is short duration and has shown promise as an effective training method to improve cardiorespiratory health. Exercise snacks may well be less than 1 minute HIIT workouts done across the day, producing similar outcomes.
Are Exercise Snacks Effective For Everything?
Of course, exercise snacks are not omnipotent. Given that they last less than 1 minute, it does not actually replace a proper workout or training program. The best outcomes we can get from exercise snacks would be modest improvements to our cardiorespiratory and potentially metabolic health, undoing the negative side effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
What Exercises Should We Use In A Snack?
While experimental studies look at exercises such as stationary bike cycling, practically, exercise snacks should be something that can be done easily across the day. For example, after immediately waking up, or when getting up from the chair at work, exercises such as stair climbing or jumping jacks are useful. For those who may have the attire and equipment, pullups, pushups, and squats are also feasible exercises. After all, not many people are going to have a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells just lying around as a door stopper now… But exercises such as kettlebell swing and dumbbell snatches are viable alternatives.
How Many Times Should We Have An Exercise Snack?
It is unclear whether there is applicable scientific research to back up how many times one can or should do an exercise snack. A safe recommendation is to simply do enough so as to not incur fatigue that would interfere with daily life or your own workouts. For example, doing 1 minute worth of push ups several times across the day may result in pumped but sore pecs, but 1 minute of stair climbing multiple times is pretty much a daily activity for most.
Are Exercise Snacks Good For Everyone?
Exercise snacks are in fact good for everyone in some way or another. For one, exercise snacks can break up the boredom in a day or task, improving your mood and quality of life. However, they may see diminishing returns for extremely physically active roles. Exercise snacks show the most benefits for those who are inactive; meaning regardless of age or other conditions, if one is sedentary, they can reap the benefits of exercise snacks.
Can Exercise Snacks Help Me With Fat Loss?
With any fat loss discussion, it is always worthwhile to mention that being in a caloric deficit is a must. A caloric deficit requires one to be using more energy than they take in. Exercise snacks can definitely help contribute to increasing the amount of energy used in a day.
Get Some Exercise Snacks In With The Gym Pod!
You are more than welcome to find an exercise snack or a quick workout if you are conveniently located close or passing by one of the many Gym Pods located in Singapore and worldwide. However, if you require help in improving your health and fitness, especially due to a sedentary lifestyle, waste no time in consulting one of our Gym Pod Academy personal trainers. Our personal trainers will provide you with the best solutions to improve your health and fitness, which may include the incorporation of exercise snacks into your lifestyle.
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