
OK, so this is going to be a tough sell for most of us.
The accepted wisdom holds that you need at least 40 minutes of exercise five
days a week to reach any sort of fitness.
There have been countless scientific studies showing the health benefits
that accrue from 150 minutes of mild exercise, or half that time spent doing
strenuous exercise. But, really, five minutes a day? How can that be true?
You have probably heard about high intensity interval training (HIIT). That workout technique focuses on short periods of really
intense exercise, followed by brief recovery periods. Some researchers at the McMaster University
in Ontario, Canada took the HIIT concept to its logical extreme.
The scientists studied the positive medical changes that
resulted from a mere three-minute HIIT routine.
They found that their volunteers saw improvements equivalent to spending
90-120 minutes riding a bike, from a brief 3-minute series of bike sprints. The
volunteers spent 30 seconds pedaling at the highest rate possible, followed by
a brief recovery period, repeating until the three minutes elapsed.

What does that mean for us? If you are jammed for time,
maybe this extreme version of HIIT exercise could be right for you. The brief
periods of exercise really will hurt, though. To be effective, you must drive
yourself to the limit of your performance repeatedly over the five minutes.
Just phoning it in won’t deliver the desired results. Some of us can take that
on. Many of us can’t bring on the pain like that, at least after a few days.
At least you now have an alternative to consider when you
just “don’t have time to exercise.”
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