Super Intense Short Workouts: Effective or Not Very Effective?
Super Intense Short Workouts: Effective or Not?
It doesn't take much time to change your body. 15 minutes of physical activity once or twice a week is the optimal format for staying fit and healthy.
A set of exercises lasting four minutes helps to build muscle mass, maintain muscle tone, and even promote rejuvenation, according to American physiologists. We figure out whether this is true.
What is "training for the lazy"?
All lazy athletes will be disappointed right from the start of their training program. The authors of the course warn: you will have to work not four minutes a day, but at least 12. The effect of classes can be obtained starting with three approaches.
The complex includes four types of exercises for 16 muscle groups. The first is squats. And if one doctor, Zach Bush, recommends doing half squats, then his colleague Joseph Mercola suggests doing squats to the end.
What is the use of a four-minute workout?
It is believed that such a course can motivate even the laziest to get off the couch. The authors also claim that exercise helps to release nitric oxide, which causes the blood vessels to stretch and dilate. It helps lower blood pressure. As a result, the risk of blood clots decreases, the immune function improves, and muscle growth begins.
For many, this formula sounds motivating, but maintaining nitric oxide in the blood is not easy.
How to maintain nitric oxide in the blood?
First of all, you should follow a diet and consume vegetables with a high content of nitrates (nitric acid salts): celery, beets, spinach, various types of salads, namely watercress, arugula, and lettuce. The nitrates in vegetables do not harm the body; on the contrary, they help to restore nitric oxide.
However, these are unstable molecules that quickly degrade in the bloodstream, so their levels must be constantly maintained. This can be done with antioxidants, which prevent the breakdown of nitric oxide. The substance is found in the same vegetables, and is also stimulated by physical activity.
According to a study backed by the Japanese government, the benefits of nitric oxide production can be seen after ten weeks with 30 minutes of training at least three times a week.
How much exercise do you need to stay fit?
According to the WHO recommendations, in order to be in good shape, a person aged 18–64 years should devote 150 minutes a week to moderate physical activity, and also to train intensively for 75 minutes. Of course, it is necessary to allocate this time. For example, 20 minutes of brisk walking plus ten minutes of running.
In theory, if you combine intense short workouts of 12 minutes a day with other physical activity, it won't get any worse. However, there are some subtleties here.
All people have a different physique. This includes weight, gender, age, and even character - I mean mobility, energy, or, conversely, phlegmaticity. Any question should be approached consciously and understand what exactly you can do. On the one hand, the recommendation to practice at least a little every day sounds reasonable. On the other hand, it is not clear to what results such training will lead for different categories of people: be it a 20-year-old girl, a 30-year-old woman after giving birth, or a 70-year-old man. In addition, constant squats for untrained people can be harmful because they put a lot of stress on the knees.
If a person has never done anything and any training is difficult for him in terms of strength, motivation, time or knowledge, any short activity will be more useful than nothing. What effect do short workouts have on the body? - Toning effect.
A four-minute load activates the central nervous system, brings it into a state of readiness for reaction, attention, and action. Therefore, if a person falls asleep at the computer at the height of the working day, a short activity will bring him some benefit. More significant results should not be expected.
Building muscle mass implies stressful quality sufficient muscle training, the correct phase of its nutrition and subsequent recovery. The saying "Exercise, eat, sleep" accurately describes this multifactorial system. It would seem, why not work out three times a day for four minutes? No, muscles need quality stress. Growth requires a load that will not be maximum, but close to maximum.
Note the plus of this system: the latest research on muscle growth shows that there is a high probability of accumulation of the training effect during the day. That is, if you want a gluteus maximus or biceps, like Schwarzenegger's, but you have little or no time, do a couple of exercises in the morning, a couple in the afternoon, and a couple in the evening. In a daily cycle, this will have a positive effect. However, in addition to sets of four minutes, additional weight will be needed - weights.
Takeaway: You can train short and several times a day, but if you want to get more effect, don't try to shorten the training time.
How much time should you spend on training per week? If we talk about "quiet" goals (weight loss and increase in muscle mass), three times a week for 60-90 minutes is enough.
