WHAT IF WE told you all you needed to do to boost your cardiovascular fitness was workout for 4.5 minutes a day, or 10 minutes every other day?
You’d probably ask where’s the catch? Well, there isn’t one according to research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where scientists have been studying the amount of exercise required to see meaningful health benefits for the past two decades.
According to the researchers, just 30 minutes of high intensity exercise per week can improve your health. That works out to roughly 4.5 minutes per day or about 10 minutes every other day. But this doesn’t just mean an idle walk. The activity needs to be strenuous enough to leave you out of breath.
If you use a heart rate monitor, researchers say your heart rate should reach about 85 percent of your maximum.
Current government health guidelines recommend exercising for at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours each week). This research shows that while this is obviously beneficial, it’s not optimal, and for many people leading busy lives, can seem overwhelming.
The benefits of improved cardiovascular fitness are myriad. “Cardiovascular fitness is the best indicator of current and future health. Good cardio fitness reduces the risk of over 30 lifestyle diseases as well as premature death by 40 to 50 percent,” explains Ulrik Wisløff, a professor at NTNU.
While you can get your 30 minutes per week of high intensity exercise in one hit, several shorter sessions spread across multiple days, may be more beneficial.
Researchers say blood pressure and blood sugar control improve for 24-48 hours after a workout that pushes you hard enough to become breathless for several minutes. Because of these short-term benefits, experts recommend dividing exercise across two to four days per week whenever possible.
“It is best to spread the sessions out a bit, because exercise also has an acute effect that lasts for one to two days, so that way you get the best of both worlds,” says Wisløff.
The best part of this approach is that your personal level of fitness will help determine your intensity. It doesn’t necessarily mean sprinting at full speed or using the highest resistance setting on an exercise bike.
“Your own personal fitness level determines what gives you a high heart rate,” says Wisløff. If you’re not very fit, simply taking a brisk walk may be enough, as long as it gets you out of breath, she adds.
Short intervals are effective, she continues, recommending bursts of 45 seconds with 15-second breaks. “Or like in Tabata workouts, with intense 20 second intervals interspersed with 10 second breaks,” Wisløff says.
So, if you’re looking to give your fitness a boost but feel you don’t have the time, consider this your wake-up call.
How to get 30 minutes of high-intensity exercise per week
- Interval training: 45 seconds with 15-second breaks x 20 every other day
- Skipping: 1 minute on, rest 20 seconds x 10 every other day
- Boxing: 30 secs on heavy bag, 30 secs off x 18, every other day
- Rowing: 10-minute row every other day
