It’s all a matter of balance. We all lead busy lives these days, in which there are never enough hours, but regularity is the key to effective exercise. So, what will we do if our other commitments clash with our exercise schedule?
One obvious answer to this question is to divide our lengthier exercises into smaller sessions, but can six ten-minute slots of exercise in one day really be as effective as one long workout? The answer isn’t quite as negative as you might expect.
It’s perfectly valid and understandable not to be able to fit in that sort of time commitment every single day. Between work, children, relationships, and our social lives, modern life can feel like an exercise in plate-spinning. But there are considerable benefits to dividing up your exercise schedule.
Mini Exercises vs One Long Workout
The NHS Physical activity guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64 recommend that you “do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week, spread evenly over 4 to 5 days a week, or every day”—that is, between an hour and a quarter and two and a half hours.
But bear in mind that these are guidelines for the general public and may be considerably lower than you’re doing as part of your exercise schedule. The general rule of thumb is to start at 2-3 hours a week of intensive activity and build up to around 3-5. At the upper end of that range, that’s an hour a day, five days a week.
Mini Exercises
Mini exercises divide that time—let’s say an hour a day, five days a week—into smaller, bite-sized chunks. How many of these you want to divide your time up is ultimately up to you. You may choose to do 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening, or six ten-minute bursts spread throughout the day.
One Long Workout
Of course, there may be times when mini workouts may not be appropriate. If you’re a gym-goer who doesn’t live close to the facility you use, or if they have equipment there that you don’t have at home, which is central to your specific exercise schedule, it’s not very practical to have to schlep out six times a day, or possibly even twice. And long workouts also come with benefits of their own. Those seeking to build their stamina for, say, distance running will need longer workouts to do so.
The Science Behind Mini Workouts
The science behind mini workouts confirms that short bursts of energy can significantly benefit the body, and these can be as short as less than a minute long. These very short bursts are known as “exercise snacks” in academic circles.
Overall, while a 2021 study found “no additional benefits from increased daily training frequency in national-level male weightlifters” (my emphasis), by this time it was already known, thanks to a 2019 study, that “adults are likely to accrue similar health benefits from exercising in a single bout or accumulating activity from shorter bouts throughout the day.”
Benefits of Mini Workouts
The benefits of mini workouts aren’t really about improving your exercise schedule itself, although they can have benefits which remain half-hidden. Most obvious is their flexibility and practicality for busy schedules. Going to the gym for an hour a day when you already feel like you’re spinning those plates might not even be possible for many people. For those people, the only alternative to mini workouts might be no exercise, a plainly unacceptable state of affairs!
Mini workouts can fit themselves around that schedule. It may be that it works for you to have a shorter burst in the morning and again in the evening, with something longer in the middle of the day. It may be that multiple 10-minute spells work best for you. What matters is that there are no limits on this flexibility. It may even be the case that you increase your activity levels over time, perhaps without even noticing. Upping six ten-minute sessions daily by two minutes each would increase your overall activity by an hour a week!
They can also help through the psychological benefit of regular exercise engagement. At the end of a long day at work, it can be easy to find that drive over to the gym and an hour on the weights to be a little… daunting. On a cold, dark winter’s evening, it can be easy to just… give it a miss.
Mini workouts integrate into your daily routine far more seamlessly and help people get into the rhythm of making regular exercise part of their normal daily lives. This can particularly benefit beginners, who may struggle with the ‘regularity’ aspect of getting regular exercise at first.
It should also be added that mini-workouts have other cognitive benefits, some of them unusual. A 2018 study found that just one single 10-minute exercise session can help to improve oculomotor control—the oculomotor nerve is a nerve pairing that carries command signals to the muscles that control eye movement—and “a short-term ‘boost’ to executive-related cognitive control.
How to Implement Mini Workouts into Your Day
As we’ve already seen, mini workouts only benefit you if you spend the same amount of time exercising as you would in longer workouts, so how do you integrate them into your day?
Planning is key. If you know ahead of time when you’ll be exercising, you’ll know that you’ve already made that commitment to yourself. But the practicalities of finding multiple spaces in the day could be a challenge, so here are some practical tips that you may wish to consider:
- Understand your day and week. To maximise your time, you must understand how you spend it. This will vary from person to person. It may be that there’s always a 15-minute spell first thing in the morning that you spend looking at your phone that could be better used or that there is a day when doing your full amount in small workouts may not be practical.
- Be flexible. For example, you may always vacuum your living room at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning. Can you change that if it means getting in half an hour’s exercise? Only you will know the intricacies of your timetable, but the key to mini workouts is their flexibility.
- Don’t be afraid to mix it up. It’s an easy mistake to make, to get sucked into the idea that you have to do ten minutes six times a day. You don’t. You may find that a full-hour session a couple of days works better for you, alongside another two or three days of it being more broken up.
- Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a workout or two. While regular exercise is important, you won’t be doing yourself any good if you start over-criticising yourself for missing a workout.
Challenges and Considerations
Pursuing perfection is the biggest challenge you’ll have to face. It applies across the board, but this feeling can be exaggerated if you have six workouts a day. Remember that any exercise is better than no exercise at all; it’s all a matter of maintaining a healthy balance, both for your body and your brain.
Choose the right exercises. The entire point of a mini-workout is that it’s supposed to be fast and convenient—so make sure you choose exercises that reflect that. The best exercises are those you know you can do anywhere and without any equipment. Jogging, squats, lunges, planks, star jumps, and stretches could each form part of your workout. Remember that you should always take a couple of minutes to warm up and warm down first.
In addition to this, try to focus on form, which means how your body is positioned during a workout, such as your posture, joint alignment, and muscle activation. This has a significant effect on the efficacy of your workout. To see results, you need proper form. So, instead of trying to fit as much exercise as possible into your mini-workout, you could try focusing on doing fewer exercises with better form.
Are Mini Workouts Enough to Stay Fit?
Yes. You can fit in as little as 10 minutes a day, but the intensity is key. Much of the research compares a single workout to several shorter workouts of the same intensity and total length to show that both approaches provide similar benefits.
How Many Mini Workouts Should I Do in a Day?
That’s down to you! What matters is that you’re getting the right amount of exercise to meet your goal. If you target five hours of intensive exercise a week, it will make no difference if you reach that five hours through a one-hour workout a day, two thirty-minute workouts a day, or six ten-minute workouts a day.
Can Mini Workouts Help With Weight Loss?
Mini workouts can be just as effective as more traditional exercise routines, boosting your metabolism, helping you lose weight, and even contributing to growing muscle mass. There is nothing to suggest that shorter workouts are less effective than longer workouts unless the overall amount of time spent working out decreases.
So, is It Better to Do Multiple Short Workouts or One Long One?
With exercise, what really matters is setting a goal and then working out consistently to meet it. What matters is that you’re getting the exercise, not whether you do it in small bursts or through longer sessions. The biggest single benefit of mini workouts is their flexibility to fit around your daily life.
There are significant benefits to getting in an hour or so a day at the gym. They may have the equipment you use, and some people find the routine of going at the same time every day beneficial. But that might not work for everybody. We all have busy lives, and it’s been demonstrated that mini workouts carry the same benefits but at a schedule you own. Considering that any exercise is better than none, mini workouts could help you meet your fitness goals and at your own pace.
