Three minutes to change

A number of studies suggest that the benefits of exercise could be achieved in much less time if you go in for very short bursts of very high-intensity exercise.

Just one minute, three times a week to be exact.
Three minutes a week, which can be split into six bursts of 30 seconds over the week, or nine bursts of 20 seconds. But they must be intense. Though you are exercising intensely for only one minute, the session takes a little longer than that. So-called High Intensive Training (HIT) has been bubbling around for a number of years — since at least 2005, when ground-breaking researchers at McMaster University in Canada referred to it as ‘sprint interval training’. And now, argue its proponents, it’s on the verge of becoming mainstream.

British researcher Dr Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at Loughborough University, is at the forefront of research into HIT, leading a clinical trial of 300 overweight volunteers to help establish its benefits.

One theory, he says, is that there may be a link ‘between the hormone responses we see with these short, sharp bursts of exercise, and regulation of how the liver, muscle and fat tissue talk to each other’. Dr Jamie will be verify this on his own, with two regimens.

“I am to try high-intensity exercise for four weeks. Then I’ll have six weeks off, doing no exercise. Finally, I will try four weeks exercising in the traditionally approved manner. At the start and end of each exercise regimen, I will have my measurements taken in order to gauge my progress.

THE ULTIMATE QUICK-FIX PLAN
You need to use either a cross-trainer or a static bicycle, and it needs to be heavy. A treadmill won’t work because it doesn’t work all the muscles. You could do it on an outdoor bike — but for the fast bits ride up a steep hill. Swimming won’t help either, as it doesn’t build up enough resistance in the muscles.

Go as fast as you can, as hard as you can. Give it 100 per cent effort. As you get fitter, your 100 per cent effort will get more and more powerful. In order to get used to HIT, it’s good to start off gradually, so in your first session, just do one 20-second burst. In your second session, do two 20-second bursts.

A typical session. Go very gently for two minutes. Then set the bike to high power and do a burst of 20 seconds. Then gently for two minutes. Then another full-on burst of 20 seconds. Then gently for another two minutes. Then another 20-second burst. Finally, a gentle two minutes to cool down. That’s nine minutes in total, of which one minute is intensive exercise.