Video | Perks of “Snacking” | Exercise Snacks vs. HIIT | How To Do Exercise Snacks | Pro Tips

You really want to exercise, but you cannot dedicate 30 or more minutes to working out. “Exercise snacks” may provide a solution. 

I’m not talking about things to eat before or after physical activity. Instead, exercise snacks are isolated bouts of vigorous exercise typically lasting a minute or less, that are performed periodically throughout the day (1).

A growing body of research is showing that these brief bouts of activity can improve cardiorespiratory fitness in previously inactive individuals.

This blog post shows you how to sprinkle exercise snacks into your daily routine, and it doesn’t matter if you spend your day at home, the office, or school.

Snack on This! “Exercise Snacks” Boost Cardiorespiratory Fitness in <1 Minute [Video]

In this video, you’ll learn…

• The definition of “exercise snacks” and their perks.
• How to implement “exercise snacks” throughout your day.
• Strategies and tips for success.

The Exercise Dilemma 

Exercise is vital for good health. If you are currently physically active, exercise snacks are not meant to replace your workout routine. These brief bouts of activity will not give you all the cardiovascular and metabolic health benefits of structured physical activity. Please keep exercising. 

But what do you do when you are in a phase of life where you have zero leisure time, or whenever you think about going to the gym or out for a jog, you cannot muster up the motivation? 

Early studies show that exercise snacks help mitigate the cardiometabolic risks of a sedentary lifestyle by breaking up prolonged sitting with short bouts of activity. 

The Perks of “Snacking”

We see from the emerging research that exercise snacks are well tolerated and solve common barriers to regular physical activity, such as a lack of time and a lack of access to workout equipment (1).

Exercise snacks fit within the structure of your day with no need to go to the gym or carve out a significant period of leisure time for exercise. If you have a young family and can’t even find the time to take a shower, you can benefit from exercise snacks. If you work two jobs, you can benefit. Even if you consider yourself way out of shape, you can incorporate these short bouts of activity into your day and get results.

Exercise Snacks vs. HIIT

To some of you, exercise snacks sound like a form of exercise called HIIT or high-intensity interval training. The two strategies share the same overall concept: short periods of vigorous exercise separated by periods of rest. Where they diverge is in that resting phase. In HIIT, the rest periods are short. With exercise snacks the rest periods are long. 

For example, a typical HIIT workout has you continually switch back and forth between short periods of exercise and rest. With exercise snacks, you perform about a minute of vigorous exercise and then rest for about an hour. A HIIT workout may last 20 minutes. Exercise snacks are performed over the course of a day or at least during an 8-hour workday.    

A HIIT workout works up a sweat. Exercise snacks generally do not. Sweating is healthy, but it requires a shower before you return to work. This will be an added perk of performing exercise snacks for some of you because they can be incorporated into your workday.

You can even take advantage of everyday life activities. For instance, you can get up from your computer and do 30 seconds worth of bodyweight squats, or take advantage of the stairs and briskly climb a few flights to satisfy your “snacking” requirement.

How To Do Exercise Snacks

Because the concept of exercise snacks is still new, there is no formally defined protocol. According to the main paper I am drawing from, the more recent studies describe exercise snacks as isolated bouts of vigorous exercise lasting up to a minute that are performed over the course of the day (1). Jump link to reference

“Vigorous” is defined by you and your current fitness level. In general, you will know that you are in that vigorous range when you notice that your heart rate is elevated and it is difficult to say more than a few words without needing to take a breath.

There are many exercise snack options; truly, any movement that gets your heart pumping will do. However, because these exercise sessions are brief, the best practice is to choose an activity that engages the large muscle groups of your lower body. This effectively raises the heart rate and promotes glucose uptake in muscles, giving you the cardiometabolic benefits you’re after. 

Exercise snacks that engage large muscles include bodyweight squats, chair squats, jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers, high-knee lifts, sprints, and brisk stair climbing. You can utilize push-ups on the floor or against a wall if leg movements are difficult.

Let’s go ahead and put together a couple of routines so you can start using exercise snacks today. Choose the one that works best for you. 

Strategy #1: Snack Every Hour (8 to 9-hour day)

This first strategy is based on a study where participants broke up 9 hours of sitting with hourly exercise snacks lasting 15 to 30 seconds. The individuals utilized stair climbing, specifically climbing three flights of stairs at a brisk speed (2).

As I mentioned, there are multiple exercises that you can utilize, so if you do not have access to stairs, you can choose something different. I use this hourly method, and I use bodyweight squats. Here is a routine you can follow. 

Perform a 30-second exercise snack every hour during any prolonged period of sitting. 

For example, when I sit down at my computer to work, I set the timer on my phone to 60 minutes. When it chimes, I get up, do a brief warm-up (see Pro Tips below) followed by 20 bodyweight squats, and then reset the timer. Those 20 squats take me about 30 seconds. 

I’ve found this provides me with great physical and mental benefits for minimal effort. But that regimented exercise every hour might not work within your day’s structure. If that is the case, another study points to benefits when exercise snacks are performed less frequently.

Strategy #2: 3 Snacks a Day, 3 Days per Week

In this study, participants also utilized stair climbing, but their routine was more spread out. Specifically, they climbed the flights of stairs 3 times per day, 3 days a week (3).

While it is too early to say that the results of this routine match those of hourly snacks, At the end of this 6-week experiment, peak oxygen uptake was higher in the stair climbers, revealing an improvement in their cardiorespiratory fitness. 

If you’d like to try this method, here is a routine you can follow. 

Perform 3 (30 to 60-second) exercise snacks a day, separated by 3 hours of rest. Repeat this routine 3 days a week. 

With this flexible schedule, you can fit a session in before and after work and do an additional one at lunchtime. Again, the type of exercise is up to you. I put together a practical routine using a few different exercises:

In the morning, do one minute of bodyweight squats. 

During a lunch break or midday, take one minute to do as many push-ups as possible with good form. If push-ups are too much, you can do wall push-ups.

In the afternoon or evening, do high knees for a minute. If you are unfamiliar with this exercise, it is basically a combination of running in place with exaggerated knee lifts.

Pro Tips

I want to end with a few tips to keep you safe and enhance your results.

Warm Up

Especially if you have been inactive, you don’t want to go directly from a prolonged sitting session to intense exercise. Therefore, before your exercise snack, do a brief warm-up. This could be a few low-effort chair squats or knee lifts, anything to raise your heart rate slightly. 

As with any exercise venture, you should discuss your plan with your doctor, especially if you have a known health concern. 

Be Intentional

Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to be intentional with your exercises and your schedule. You will not get the benefit if you just do them whenever you remember or it’s convenient. Set a timer and a time frame. 

Be Consistent

These brief bouts of activity are a bit of an exercise hack. But, for the best results, consistency matters. Pick one of the strategies I discussed and commit to doing it for a month. 

Boost Results around Meals

Lastly, boost your metabolic results by timing exercise snacks around meals. Engaging in movement before or after a meal allows your body to clear glucose from the blood better, improving insulin sensitivity over time. 

Takeaway

If time and motivation are a challenge for you, try exercise snacks. They are not designed to replace high-intensity interval training, weight lifting, or steady-state aerobic activity. But, regular use of them will benefit your cardiorespiratory fitness and reduce the health risks associated with prolonged sitting. You’ll also find that it is a great way to give yourself a mental boost in the middle of the day.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful week!

References:

(1) Islam, Hashim, Martin J. Gibala, and Jonathan P. Little. “Exercise snacks: a novel strategy to improve cardiometabolic health.” Exercise and sport sciences reviews 50.1 (2022): 31-37.

(2) Rafiei, Hossein, et al. “Metabolic Effect of Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting with Stair Climbing Exercise Snacks.” Medicine and science in sports and exercise 53.1 (2021): 150-158.

(3) Jenkins, E. Madison, et al. “Do stair climbing exercise “snacks” improve cardiorespiratory fitness?.” Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism 44.6 (2019): 681-684.

About the Author

Becky Gillaspy, DC, is the author of The Intermittent Fasting Guide and Cookbook and Zero Sugar / One Month. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with research honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1991.