Exercise snacks are key to a healthier life

If you are thinking of joining the gym or adding a piece of exercise equipment at home that will likely end up as a clothes hanger, I have some good news for you.

Did you realize that as little as two minutes of increased energy in exercise can improve your health. A couple of recent studies support the health benefits of short bursts of exercise, you might think of them as exercise snacks, reducing cardiovascular and cancer risk up to 40 to 50 percent.

If you had to guess most challenging problems in a primary care practice, you might guess cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or Alzheimer’s. You would be mostly right.

Our greatest hurdles as people and as professionals turns out to be motivational, helping manage movement/exercise, diet/weight, and stress/mood management. These lifestyle changes are upstream from the common diseases of humanity. Addressing them is crucial but difficult.

Improving movement and activity, just getting started doing anything, moving off the couch or desk chair, is a radical, sometimes scary, but health affirming act. And it’s harder than taking a pill.

I recently did a Medicare Wellness exam on a healthy CEO-looking guy in his 70’s. When we got to talking about exercise, he sheepishly admitted that he did not do any. None. He had some reasonable and common reasons/excuses. Pain, fear of falling, no motivation, too tired. Overall, his health was good, so we discussed benefits of exercise: decreased fall risk, increased cardiovascular health, lower dementia risk, improved balance, mood, confidence, conditioning. He seemed unconvinced so I gave him 14-exercises that can be done in bed.

It turns out that even short bursts of movement can help us break through the inertia of inactivity.

I read a study from a few years ago that introduced the concept of exercise snacks. In the same way that you would reach for bite from the refrigerator or pantry, you can select a short burst of 2-10 minutes of activity instead.

A more recent study just published in Nature Medicine highlights how just increasing the intensity of daily movements like playing with kids, climbing stairs, carrying groceries, fast walking across the block can yield big benefits with only a couple minutes three times daily.

For those who don’t consider themselves active, like my patient, it may be encouraging to note that your daily activities of living may already contribute positively to you health. Adding a few minutes daily in small increments of time and intensity can help reach that threshold of 150 minutes a week that is the inflection point for better health and longevity outcomes.

This exercise snacking approach helps us avoid the all or nothing mentality about fitness. Instead of thinking about doing an hour or so of exercise, fitting those 10- or 15-minute bites or even a two-minute burst is very accessible and helpful.

Avoid sitting for prolonged periods and start building more movement into your life over time. Set an alarm if you need to. Motion is lotion.