Physical activity even in its most moderate form will improve your physical health and mental health. Any for of movement - no matter how long or short - is good for you!
It will help you battle obesity, lower your insulin resistance (diabetes), improve your blood pressure and even helps control your appetite and therefore loose weight.
There are various reasons why you might choose Mini-Workouts over longer stretches of exercise:
🏀 Maybe you are busy and just cannot squeeze more time out of your stressful life?
🥎 Maybe you are a beginner and you want to test the waters with short bursts of exercise?
🏈 Maybe you are recovering from an injury and you want to get back into fitness slowly?
Whatever your motivation is one thing is for sure:
Little exercise is better than no exercise! So you are on the right track! 💕
Here is what we know:
⚾ Small bursts of high-intensity activity that push against the limit of our capability trigger the adaptive response of the human body and help increase strength, aerobic capacity and endurance.⚾ Micro-bursts of moderate exercise also accumulate and help deliver higher health and fitness benefits than doing nothing.
⚾ Everything is cumulative. Even 1-minute bursts of activity throughout the day make a difference at a physical level as they accumulate over a month.
⚾ Fitter individuals benefit the most from small burst of high intensity activity when it becomes part of a sustained training regime.
⚾ Age-related illnesses can be held at bay longer with micro-workouts.
Every little bit helps.
It appears that while different levels of fitness need to use mini-workouts differently to fit in with their capabilities it is the effort involved, at every level, that makes the difference. Everything that requires effort produces an adaptive response in the human body. Adaptive responses change the body’s capability for the better.
The advantages.
As the human body ages it tends to exercise less and less. Even small bursts of activity help protect against cardiovascular diseases and improve both mental and physical health.
Study findings suggest that the best form of short-burst exercise combines sets that challenge the body on many different levels: strength, aerobic performance, balance, agility, flexibility and range of movement. Short bursts of activity are actually so beneficial to overall fitness and health that a study carried out by researchers at Queen's University School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Kingston, Ontario, Canada found positive health benefits even when the subjects studied were overweight and did not exercise, but recorded small bursts of physical activity as part of their everyday work. The latter, in particular is good news for Office-friendly workout fans as they increase overall fitness, decrease blood pressure and appetite and promote higher levels of energy, increased mobility and better health.
Regularity is key.
Key to mental and physical improvement is unfortunately again: building a routine.
Doing short burst exercises once a month will bring next to no improvement. The secret is to exercise little but intensely and most importantly - daily. This does not mean that you have to do the same routine every day. Key is to bring your heart rate up.
Exercise can come in many forms such as walking or manual work. Any form of movement is gold. Try to integrate moving into your daily life. Take the stairs instead of the lift, walk to the supermarket or post office (if save) or take your girlfriends for a stroll.
You can also involve your friends, husband or kids into your exercise routine. Check out our guide on How to exercise with a partner? and How to exercise with kids? Involving others into your exercise routine is fun and will help you stay motivated.
Below we have listed a few short workouts you can do at home during a break from home office or in the park with friends or your partner. It requires no equipment and can therefore be executed anytime and anywhere.
If you decide to exercise outside please make sure you drink enough water and please make sure you don`t overheat.
1. Home Micro-Workout.
We recommend a yoga matt for the floor exercises.
Please do a few stretches before each mini-workout to avoid injuring yourself.
2. Outdoor/ Home Micro-Workout.
We recommend a yoga matt for the floor exercises.
Please do a few stretches before each mini-workout to avoid injuring yourself.
You can repeat the blow listed routines between 1-3 times. Depending how you feel and how much time you have. The aim is to get your heart rate up.
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With Love,
The SPARK team 💕
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