“I don’t have time” has to be one of the most common excuses for why people don’t work out.
It might be the most common excuse.
People today feel like they don’t have time to do anything. This is somewhat true; we are taking less and less time for ourselves, and spending more of it working. The average full time employee today spends far more time “in work” today than they ever have before; it is only recently that most people have been able to take their work home with them!
So while the number of people working out on a regular basis is probably higher today than it’s ever been, the number of obese, overweight, or severely unhealthy people has also increased dramatically.
While a lot of the population are clearly making time to look after their health, the majority are not.
They aren’t doing so because they feel like they don’t have time.
But according to research, we all definitely do have time. We just don’t realize it.
5 Minutes Per Day Is Better Than Nothing
According to some pretty conclusive clinical data, getting just 5 minutes of exercise per day is enough to make a significant difference to your health, in more ways than one. It can sometimes help to get a smartwatch – such as the Huawei Band 7 – to help you find and keep track of the time.
According to a study conducted by the University of Utah, incorporating short “bursts” of exercise into your day – even if they are just a few minutes long – can actually have an enormous impact on your physique and overall health.
These researchers found that the intensity of exercise was a stronger determinant of total weight lost over the course of the study than exercise duration. That is, women who performed short but intense bouts of exercise lost as much weight as women who carried out the recommended longer, less intense bouts so long as the relative intensity was the same overall.
Or, to use the researchers’ own words: “Results show that for women, each daily minute spent in higher-intensity short bouts was related to a decrease of .07 BMI. Looking at it another way, each such minute offset the calorie equivalent of .41 pounds. This means that when comparing two women each 5-feet-5-inches tall, the woman who regularly adds a minute of brisk activity to her day will weigh nearly a half-pound less.”
That’s pretty amazing no matter how you look at it!
Tips On Fitting A Good Workout Into Your Day
There are lots of ways you can easily incorporate short but intense bouts of exercise into your day without having to turn up to the office sweaty and smelling!
According to the Editor of LIVE Magazine – an authority on health-focused training – the important thing to focus on is not overall numbers or arbitrary benchmarks. Rather, it is important to focus on making the workout difficult for you.
“What constitutes an intense workout differs greatly person to person (more details). Going off the conclusions of the cited study, it is enough for you to get your heart rate up and your lungs working overtime for you to reap the benefits of short but intense exercise. So moving a little faster up the stairs than usual, or taking a longer walking route home but trying to make it in the same time; these things all work great.”
So start incorporating some intense bouts of activity into your day and you will quickly start seeing a major difference in your physique.
