The five-minute ‘eccentric’ exercise regime that can change your life
No gym membership, no equipment at home, no worries. Just five minutes of exercise a day can improve your physical and mental health, a new study shows. We step you through the exercises you’ll need.
Don’t have time to exercise? Gym too crowded? Home fitness equipment too expensive?
It’s time to bin those tired old excuses. New Australian research has found just five minutes of exercise a day can improve your physical and mental health.
Doing 10 repetitions of four exercises – chair squats, chair recline (an easier form of sit-ups), push-ups against a wall and heel drops – once a day over four weeks boosted muscle strength, flexibility and mental health among previously sedentary study participants.
Notably, the exercises were “eccentric” – reversing the usual contraction of a muscle by slowly stretching it out as the main focus of the exercise. An example is sitting into a chair slowly rather than rising up quickly from the chair, which lengthens and strengthens the front thigh muscle as it supports the body’s weight.
The study, published in the latest European Journal of Applied Physiology, also found a five-minute exercise program could become a “gateway” for sedentary people into a more regular, longer program that could have even more benefits.
Edith Cowan University School of Medical and Health Sciences academic Ken Nosaka, who co-authored the study, said the results showed eccentric exercises were “very effective” in improving overall fitness.
“Even small amounts of daily exercise can provide sustainable and detectable benefits. We saw significant improvements in muscle strength, flexibility, strength endurance and mental health,” Professor Nosaka said.
“This type of exercise is also more accessible to most people, as it makes use of body weight and eliminates the need to go to a gym.
“They can also be spread out during the day, which makes it more achievable to those who are time poor,” he said.
The Australian guidelines on exercise recommend considerably more daily exercise than this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it program. For 18- to 64-year-olds they recommend between 2½ hours and five hours of moderate intensity physical activity per week, or 1¼ hours to 2½ hours of vigorous exercise per week, and some muscle strengthening exercise on at least two days.
But fewer than one in five Australian adults meets both the aerobic and physical strength guidelines, research shows, though around 60 per cent manage to achieve the aerobic guidelines.
“That figure (at least 150 minutes of moderate activity) can often discourage people, especially if they are just starting out,” Professor Nosaka said.
“Using five minutes a day as a starting point, and building on that, would allow people to see more results. Every muscle contraction counts, but you need at least 10 contractions for each exercise in order to gain some results.”
“As you get older, your fitness level will decline by 1 to 2 per cent a year on average. So, for someone who is 50 years old their fitness levels will be 20 per cent less than when they were 30 years old,” Professor Nosaka said.
“Performing exercises regularly is very important, particularly as people get older, as it lowers the risk of chronic disease, injury, fatigue and helps with mental health.”
Part of that mental health story is just starting to be active again, the study shows.
“A minimal-dose strategy, focusing on simple yet effective movements, may be particularly suitable for sedentary individuals with limited time, and could provide a gateway to regular exercise participation, helping individuals overcome barriers associated with perceived lack of time,” the paper says.
“This lower perceived effort may make eccentric exercise more appealing and sustainable, particularly for individuals who are new to exercise or have struggled to maintain consistent physical activity.”
The study monitored a group of 22 sedentary but healthy people, primarily women, over four weeks of exercise. It tested for health markers such as strength, flexibility, lean mass, blood-based health markers, and mental wellbeing.
There was a greater than 90 per cent completion rate of the program.
The paper draws on some extraordinary earlier research that shows how little exercise is needed to achieve some physical benefit, especially if it is eccentric exercise.
It points to one study that shows a single three-second eccentric contraction of the elbow flexors (a bicep curl), done five days a week for four weeks, significantly enhanced muscle strength.
Another study found that six daily three-second bicep curls led to a more than 10 per cent increase in muscle thickness within four weeks.
5-MINUTE EXERCISE PROGRAM CHAIR SQUAT
CHAIR RECLINE
HEEL DROP
WALL PUSH-UP
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