Intermittent exercise?

dsboohead

What are the thoughts on intermittent exercise? Going around the building at work during breaks for 10 minutes. 10 minutes of elliptical at home between tasks and the such. Is it as beneficial as long periods?

MeanderingMammal

Depends what you mean by beneficial.

It'll have some benefit in terms of increasing your activity. You'll fairly quickly run out of fitness improvement effect though.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

All exercise is good. Quick movement breaks are good, but to really get a benefit you need to significantly raise your heart rate, as in climbing up 5 stories.

rybo

It will add to your TDEE, but it's not likely to induce and actual training adaptation.

MegaMooseEsq

I believe that in terms of the general cardiovascular benefits, it doesn't matter if you split up the exercise or do it all at once, and there's even some evidence that multiple sessions are better for you in some ways. And it's absolutely better than nothing! Three ten minute walks is going to be better exercise for you than an hour class at the gym if you never go to the gym.

This article is a few years old, but cites a few studies on the subject - I'm not aware of any major change in the last five years, but I'm open to correction there: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/ask-well-3-short-workouts-or-1-long-one/

tcunbeliever

It's certainly more beneficial than sitting around doing no exercise.

cwolfman13

It will increase your activity and overall energy expenditure. Next to nothing in regards to building endurance and the ceiling would be pretty low on improvements in your overall aerobic fitness.

It really just depends on whether or not you're just trying to move more, or trying to advance your fitness.

dsboohead

For me I move around since I am a clinical assistant. I do not sit at home in a vegetative state! I wonder what that would be like. Sleeping for 8 hours is as close to vegetative I would be at. So would like to be able to count anything I could squeeze out! Thanks guys for your info!

JeromeBarry1

Burn is burn.

jjpptt2

I would question whether or not those things are exercise. I'm not saying they are or aren't... but I wouldn't automatically assume that they are.

kimny72

I try to get up and walk around at least every couple of hours a) to increase my NEAT and b) because of all the research coming out suggesting sitting on your keister all day has negative health consequences. I actually raised my NEAT noticeably just by getting up and moving around more often. But I don't think of it is adding to my fitness per se.

I think if you can do legitimate HIIT for 10-15 minutes once or twice a week, that would be considered "exercise" contributing to fitness. But that's not just something you do on a quick work break, since after real HIIT you should be a puddle of miserable huffing jello

I think there's a limit to how much the 10 minutes of activity can help because there is no challenge or growth, which is what you need for your body to need to get stronger. Having said that, anything is better than nothing!

cdlee05mfp

If anything I think it's great for mental well being. Even more so if you're in a cold weather climate and missing out on Vitamin D...good to take breaks and move around.

SonyaCele

there was a period of time i could only get my exercise in 10 minutes at a time, and it was fine. There have been lots of studies that show it all adds up and you dont have to do it all at once. And i actually feet better when its spread throughout the day, it kinda keeps me amped up and active all day long instead of lazy 90% of the day and then a burst of 30 min.

canadianlbs

i'd do it more to just keep my joints moving etc than for burn. but it's still worth doing, anyway.