1 minute of ‘Intense’ exercise may equal 45 minutes of moderate exercise

Saying you do not have time to exercise may no longer be an excuse, according to one researcher.
Writing in the journal PLOS One, researchers from McMaster University in Canada say that just one minute of intense exercise “produces health benefits similar to longer, traditional endurance training.
“This is a very time-efficient workout strategy,” says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster and lead author on the study. “Brief bursts of intense exercise are remarkably effective.”

For the study, 27 sedentary men were split into three groups, either performing intense workouts, doing moderate training or doing no training. The researchers monitored each group’s cardiorespiratory health as well as how well their body regulated blood sugar.
The intense training consisted of three, 20-second “all-out” cycle sprints, “including a two minute warm-up and three minute cool down, and two minutes of easy cycling for recovery between the hard sprints.”
The moderate group did 45 minutes of cycling with the same warm-up and cool down.
At the end of the study, ”the results were remarkably similar,” researchers said.
“Most people cite ‘lack of time’ as the main reason for not being active,” said Gibala. “Our study shows that an interval-based approach can be more efficient, you can get health and fitness benefits comparable to the traditional approach, in less time.”