Why Short Workouts Work

If you find it hard to fit exercise into your day because you never seem to have enough time to commit to a lengthy workout, recent research might just help you out.

According to the University of Tsukuba in Japan, even a 10-minute jog is enough to get your heart pumping which helps maintain heart health but also improve cognitive function by promoting blood flow to the bilateral prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that helps control processing and mood.

In another long-term study published by the European Heart Journal, doing at least 19 minutes per week of exercise (just under four minutes a day for five days) of intense exercise was linked to a 40% lower risk of developing heart disease over the seven-year study.

Even better results were shown by those who split up their short bursts of rigorous activity into even shorter periods of time during the course of the day. Further evidence of the benefits of accumulative ‘exercise snacking’ was seen in another study that found that climbing stairs for 20 seconds, multiple times a day, improved aerobic fitness and endurance.