Can ‘exercise snacking’ every day help you get fitter? 

Lots of people find it hard to find the time – or motivation – to fit a long workout into their busy routines.

But what if a few minutes of exercise a couple of times a day, like stair climbing or body weight exercises, was enough to help you get fitter?

That’s what several UK news outlets reported in October after a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that short bursts of exercise known as ‘exercise snacks’ can improve cardiorespiratory fitness.

Cardiorespiratory fitness is your body’s ability to deliver oxygen to your muscles when you’re exercising.

A higher level of fitness has been linked to a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

So, the researchers say their findings suggest exercise snacks could help people look after their heart.

What did the research find on exercise snacking?

Exercise snacks are short bursts of exercise, which can be performed several times a day as part of your usual routine. Until now, there’s been limited research into how exercise snacking affects fitness levels.

To find out more, researchers reviewed 11 controlled trials from across the world – including the UK, Australia, Canada and China – that covered 414 physically inactive adults.

The trials looked at the effect of exercising for 5 minutes or less at least twice a day for 4 to 12 weeks on cardiorespiratory fitness.

Some study participants did the exercises 3 days a week, while others did them every day. The intensity of the exercises also varied from moderate to vigorous.

Among the under 65s, these exercise snacks mostly involved climbing stairs, while the over 65s mainly performed leg strength exercises or tai chi movements.

On average, people’s cardiorespiratory fitness (the amount of oxygen their body was able to use during exercise) increased after they added exercise snacks to their routine – ranging from a 4.6 per cent to a 17 per cent rise across the 11 different studies.

This was significantly higher than those who did not perform exercise snacks. And similar to cardiorespiratory fitness levels seen in previous research for people who took up regular brisk walking.

The review also found that exercise snacks could improve muscular endurance (the ability to repeatedly use your muscles against resistance) in older people, however the evidence was less certain.

How much exercise do you need per week?

Staying physically active can improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, which can reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. 

The UK Government recommends at least either:

• 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week – this is exercise that makes you feel warmer but still able to talk.
• 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise a week – this makes you breathe harder, so you can only say a few words at a time.

The researchers pointed out that the study’s participants still saw improvements to their cardiorespiratory fitness even though they did not complete the recommended amount of exercise per week.

They said this showed even a small amount of exercise could have benefits for health in people who are not physically active.

However, the research did not find that performing exercise snacks led to any significant changes in weight, blood pressure or cholesterol levels, which are all risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The researchers suggested this could be because many of the participants already had healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels and were a healthy weight.

They concluded that longer trials would be needed to see if exercise snacks had any impact on these risk factors.

What do the researchers say?

The researchers point out that most of the studies they reviewed did not compare the effects of exercise snacks to other types of exercise.

This means we do not know if they’re as effective as longer, moderate intensity workouts or high intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves repeated intense rounds of exercise with short breaks in between.

However, they note that exercise snacks appear doable and achievable in the real world, with study participants completing around 83 per cent of the requested exercises on average.

This is a high adherence rate compared to other forms of exercise such as longer moderate intensity workouts, which have a 68 per cent average adherence rate, and HIIT, which has a 63 per cent one, according to research in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

The researchers suggest adherence is higher with exercise snacks for physically inactive people because they’re easier to do than other forms of unsupervised exercise – as they are short, flexible and easier to fit into a daily routine.

How good was the media coverage?

Several UK newspapers reported on the research, including the Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Independent.

The Daily Mail’s headline stated that: “Just FIVE minutes of intense exercise twice a day can dramatically boost heart health, scientists discover”.

This was inaccurate – better cardiorespiratory fitness may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the study did not find exercise snacks could ‘dramatically boost heart health’.

While the Mail described exercise snacks as 5 minutes of intense exercise, The Telegraph’s headline called them “two-minute exercise ‘snacks’.”

These headlines may be slightly misleading, as the study defined exercise snacks as 5 minutes or less, and did not specify that they were ‘intense’.

The BHF verdict

Staying active is an important part of looking after your heart health.

This study suggests that exercise snacking can help to improve your fitness if you're physically inactive, as it offers an easier way to add exercise to your daily routine.

And while more research is needed to find out how exercise snacks improve heart health in the long-term, adding regular short movement breaks like climbing the stairs to your day can be a useful way of building up fitness levels.

But make sure to check with your GP first if you’ve not exercised for a while, or you're concerned about exercising with a heart condition.

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