What if I told you that you could slash your risk of dying by up to 40 percent in in less than 10 minutes a day and not even 10 minutes in one session. Okay. It’s not a magic pill or crash diet. I’m talking about exercise snacks, little bites of exercise that even crazy busy people like you and me can fit into our days.

No excuses. So here’s the reality. Right now, less than 20 percent of older Americans meet the lame CDC recommendations for exercise. And by the way, I say lame because that is what I would consider the bare minimum for exercise. Now, one of the biggest reasons I hear for why people aren’t meeting the recommendations is I don’t have time.

When you hear all of the benefits you can get in a few minutes a day, you’re going to definitely want to schedule these into your day and make time. And I’m going to show you some of my favorite ways to do that, even if you’re at the office in your work clothes. But first, let’s build a case as to why you want to do this.

So  people who engage in three bouts of exercise snacks, these are called VILPA, vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity per day. With each of these lasting 1-2 minutes, have a 40-50 reduction in all cause, cancer, and cardiovascular disease death compared to people who didn’t engage in these exercise snacks.

Here’s all the cool stuff that they do for you. First up They improve your overall metabolic health. So one of the first things they do is help improve your insulin sensitivity. In fact, there’s been a bunch of studies showing that even short bursts of exercise can improve insulin sensitivity. This is going to mean that your body is going to be able to manage your blood sugar better.

And we know that if you’re insulin, insulin sensitive, you got better satiety and you’re better able to use body fat, stored body fat for fuel. So there was a study published in Diabetetologia that showed that breaking up prolonged sitting. Which is three minutes of body weight exercises every 30 minutes, improved insulin responses and glucose regulation.

Next up, fat burning and who doesn’t want to burn more fat? So exercise snacks can help with fat metabolism. There was a study in the medicine and science and sports and exercise that found that short intense bursts of exercise, like stair climbing for a minute, increased fat burning, helping the body use fat as fuel more effectively all throughout the day.

And it boosts your metabolism. You’re going to spend more calories. Even though each snack is short, accumulating these over the day leads to a total higher calorie burn compared to like sitting on your butt. Kind of obvious, right? This increased energy expenditure can help with weight management and also help with metabolic health.

Oh, too far.

It also helps your heart health. There are studies that show that exercise snacks improve heart health. Cardiovascular fitness. There was a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology that showed that three 10 minute bouts of exercise spread throughout the day were as effective in improving cardiovascular fitness as one 30 minute session.

Short bouts of high intensity exercise improve heart health. by lowering your resting heart rate, lowering your blood pressure, and improving your overall circulation. Now I already mentioned blood sugar. For individuals who are at risk of diabetes or have impaired glucose metabolism, breaking up sedentary time with short activity bouts has been found to help with that postprandial  There was a 2019 study in the American Journal of Physiology that found that light activities like walking or bodyweight exercises, performed just a few minutes at a time, can significantly reduce post meal glucose spikes.

And of course, that’s going to mean great steady energy levels and will help you not get insulin resistance. And I think that one of the things you could think about is how do we just kind of get Habit stack this and think, what if every time you ate, remember you’re not snacking, right? But you ate three meals a day and you just said, okay, I’m gonna do one to two minutes of exercise after my meal.

That’s all you would have to do. And if you do that, guess what else? You’re gonna feel better too. ’cause this helps with your mood. Exercise snacks have been shown to enhance mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. There was a study from the Journal of Health Psychology that found that even three to five minute sessions of physical activity.

Walking can boost your mood and reduce feelings of stress because of the endorphins released. By the way, if you do a little bit heavier, harder stuff, like again, 1-2 minutes of running up the stairs, even better endorphin boost.  And here’s what’s the most important. Remember when I said at the beginning people don’t exercise because they don’t have time?

Well, you know, there’s no point in giving you the greatest exercise prescription if you’re not going to do it. So the most important thing about exercise, because people ask all the time, like, when should I exercise? I go, when you will. What should I do? What you’ll do, right? Is exercise snacks help with increased adherence to exercise?

Because they’re easy to integrate and implement into your daily routine. So you’re more likely to stick with them. There was a 2020 review in obesity reviews that found that short bursts of activity throughout the day were associated with higher adherence rates compared to traditional longer workouts, especially for those of us with time constraints or have trouble keeping the motivation going, which is most people, right?

And It’s a great way to break up all of those long periods of sitting that we know have detrimental effects on your health. When you’re sitting for too long, what are all the things that happen? Your metabolism slows down, your blood flow gets impaired, your body’s ability to manage blood sugar goes down.

So you can combat all of this. with exercise snacks because you get those muscles going and contracting, you’re improving circulation, better metabolic functioning overall. All right, so I’ve said all this to convince you that this is what you want to do. So first of all, exercise snacks. These are like micro doses of exercise.

Think of them in one to ten minute little bursts and they’re going to help you improve your overall metabolic health. They’re going to help you with your blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. They’re going to help you boost your metabolism and. Burn fat, they’re going to help you with compliance, your heart health, your mood.

Come on, easy peasy. So now that you’re sold, right? Let’s talk about what you can do. So what are some of these exercise snacks? And here’s what’s cool. All the things I’m going to share with you you don’t need any equipment for. Jumping jacks, jumping rope. Well okay, you need equipment but you can fake jump rope.

Running upstairs, doing air squats, doing a little squat jump, doing a side bound, doing skaters, doing up downs or burpees or lunge jumps or lunges. High knees, mountain climbers. There’s a lot more where that came from, but those are just a few to get you started. But literally, if all you did to start was say, you know what, I’m going to do some jumping jacks after breakfast.

I’m going to do some air squats after lunch. And I’m going to go up and down the stairs after dinner. You’re done. You nailed it. Here’s how to make sure you do it. Set an alarm on your phone and do a contest with a friend. Now, I actually created a 10 day, 10 minute to win it, isn’t that cute, challenge that will guide you through all of this.

It’s at jjvirgin. com forward slash snackchallenge. And if you want some more inspiration, I made a quick HIIT routine that you can do wherever you are. It’s all bodyweight only again, and it takes just 10 minutes, but of course, you don’t have to do it. In 10 minutes you can cut it into little chunks just like I talked about and do it all throughout the day.

So check it out and get moving.
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