No Excuses... All You Need is 10-Minutes

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Illustration by Sally Spratt

“I don’t have time to exercise” is the excuse equivalent of the dog ate my homework. The average American watches roughly five hours of TV daily; yet people still use lack of time as the number one reason they don’t work out.

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We’ve lost the nonstop daily movement we once performed throughout the day. Combine that with longer working hours and “no time to workout”, we’ve become a sedentary and overweight society who puts “Breaking Bad” marathons above wellness. But don’t fret, there’s a simple fix. Studies show that as little as one daily 10-minute block of exercise is all it takes to start reaping rewards such as weight loss, lower stress, increased muscle mass and flexibility, injury prevention and a more positive outlook.

Tim Church, MD, PhD, from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, found that women who began strolling at a two to three mile an hour pace for just 10 minutes a day significantly improved general fitness and heart strength as effectively as those exercising for twice as long. Good news if you’re a couch potato—Church found that you’d see the greatest health benefits when you go from doing nothing at all to just 10 minutes a day.

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If you’re already active, yet still find yourself cramming in workouts, then you’ll need to train a bit longer and harder, incorporating intervals into two 10 minute blocks a day in order to reach the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans from The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These guidelines suggest you combine aerobic activity to boost your heart rate, plus muscle and bone strengthening exercises.

Getting fit and staying healthy isn’t about quick fixes, it’s about incorporating small habits that when combined yield big results. But those small habits need to be convenient, or else we ditch the idea before we start. Here are sneaky ways to add in those 10-minute chunks of exercise:

  • If you’re not willing to separate from the TV, you can create a habit of taking ten minutes of screen-time to do some compound exercises like squats and lunges that raise your heart rate and build muscle at the same time.

  • Get sweaty with a quick 10 minutes of cardio before you jump in the shower—jumping jacks, jumping rope, dancing in your bedroom—it all works.

  • Get up ten minutes earlier. Turn on some music and dance with your kids, throw on your kicks and run around the block, or jump rope; it will be over before you know it.

  • During your lunch break, close your office door or sneak into a conference room and perform one minute each of mountain climbers, plank, wall sit, pushups, and walking lunges. Then go into the stairwell and walk up the stairs for 4 minutes; return to your desk for the last minute to quickly stretch your arms and legs.

  • To get to 30 minutes total for the day, fit in some exercise while you cook dinner. If you’re making pasta you’ve got a few minutes while the water boils, then at least seven more while your whole grain penne reaches a perfect al dente. Grab a kettle bell or some weights and alternate one minute intervals of jumping jacks with various strength moves such as kettle bell swings, overhead presses, bent-over rows, and bicep curls while balancing on one foot.

Since these ten-minute clips are quick, you want to work out at an intensity that challenges you. So yes, if you haven’t exercised in 10 years, that daily stroll may kick-start your metabolism, but not if you’re already used to raising your heart rate a few times a week. You’ll need to keep your heart and respiration rate up as you include both aerobic and strength training moves into each segment. The key is to work in activities that use your large muscles.

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Just think, in ten minutes you’ll not only feel healthier, but happier when you choose to get off your couch and contribute to your overall wellbeing. And trust me, raising your heart rate during interval training is much more beneficial than watching the heart attack inducing finale of The Walking Dead.