How to get stronger: Lift weights for three seconds a day
New research says doing a single three-second exercise daily can lead to strength gains. And one move stands above them all.
Less is more is a phrase most of us like to hear when it comes to exercise, so many will be pleased by the news that US researchers have found that the 10,000 steps a day target we are often told to aim for is too high.
Apparently walking 6000 steps a day is enough to reduce the risk of early death in the over-60s, and anything over 8000 is a waste of shoe leather.
It’s a similar situation in the gym. In recent years, cardio workouts have been crunched to a minimum with HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts lasting a matter of minutes. Now strength training is under the spotlight, with a new study suggesting that just three seconds of daily weight-training could make a big difference to your muscle strength if you have neglected resistance exercise until now, something that the NHS recommends you shouldn’t do.
For their study, exercise scientists reporting in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports asked a small group (39) of healthy but sedentary men and women to perform the astonishingly brief arm-strengthening exercise with weights every day for a month. To ensure uniformity of movement among participants, the team from Niigata University of Health and Welfare in Japan and Edith Cowan University in Australia used a lab-based training machine called an isokinetic dynamometer that recorded precise measurements of force and range of motion as they performed a simulated three-second biceps curl with “maximum force” — as heavy as they could manage — on five days a week.
Three-second experiment
There were subtle variations in how they lifted, says Professor Ken Nosaka, director of exercise and sports science at ECU and one of the researchers. “One group performed an ‘eccentric’ lift, which meant lowering the weight down from the shoulder so that the elbow joint was forcibly extended and the muscle lengthened. A second ‘concentric’ group slowly lifted the weight upwards, meaning the muscles shortened, as in a biceps curl, and the ‘isometric’ group held the weight in place at the mid-point.”
They continued with this single three-second daily contraction on Mondays to Fridays for four weeks, completing 20 sessions in all, with a total muscle contraction time of 60 seconds in the month-long trial. They did no other exercise during this time and a control group did nothing, not even the minuscule arm workouts.
Considering the minimal time and fitness investment, when Nosaka and his colleagues came to re-evaluate the effects of the three second workouts the results were impressive. All the participants had some strength gains in their biceps with improvements of 6-7 per cent among the concentric and isometric exercisers, yet it was the eccentric lifters who made the biggest leap, ending the short trial with arm muscles 11.5 per cent stronger than when they started. Every contraction counts
“People think you have to spend vast amounts of time exercising to improve their muscle strength, but that’s not the case,” Nosaka says. “Our study results suggest that a very small amount of exercise stimulus — even 60 seconds in four weeks — can increase muscle strength and that every muscle contraction counts.”
The improvements were seen in people who were starting from a strength-training base of zero, so gradually increasing intensity and duration would be necessary to maintain and improve further. But it’s a starting point that will come as a relief to those who have skirted resistance training in the past. Government physical activity guidelines suggest that adults should do “strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups — legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms — on at least two days a week”.
That doesn’t necessarily mean swinging a kettlebell at the gym — lifting your own bodyweight with push-ups and squats, even doing repeated chair-sit-to-stand moves, would count. Yet statistics from Sport England’s Active Lives survey reveal that 34 per cent of men and 38 per cent of women fail to meet this target. From age 75 onwards, when muscle strength is of prime importance in the prevention of falls, engagement plummets. Just one quarter of people age 85-plus meet the guidelines.
For his next study, Nosaka will be looking at an ultra-brief all-round strength workout. “We haven’t investigated muscles other than the biceps yet, but if we find the three-second rule also applies to other muscles then you might be able to do a whole-body exercise routine in less than 30 seconds,” he says. “When the message is ‘do at least one three-second eccentric contraction per muscle group every day’ there really is no excuse not to do it.”
If you have neither the time or inclination to linger in the weights room, here’s how to build your strength:
Concentrate on core strength
David Sadkin, a sport scientist and strength and conditioning coach who works with Team GB athletes, says strong core muscles are an essential platform from which to develop all-round strength. “The core muscles are the engine of the car and if they are not strong you’ll inhibit strength gains elsewhere. These muscles help to stabilise the pelvis, offload pressure in the lower back and enable you to perform exercises like squats with good technique.”
If you’ve never done anything remotely core-centric before, he suggests starting with daily pelvic tilts. Lie on the floor with your knees bent to 90 degrees and feet flat on the floor. Extend your arms alongside your body, palms down, and allow your back to maintain a natural arch. Inhale. As you exhale, think about closing the space between your lower back and the floor by tilting the pelvis upwards and engaging the abdominals. Inhale, and return to the start position. Repeat five to six times daily.
Add resistance in microdoses
Progression is key when it comes to continual improvement and strength gains – but that doesn’t mean lifting heavy weights from the offset. “There are lots of elements of progress including the number of repetitions and sets you do, the variety of exercises, the frequency and also the load,” Sadkin says. “Increase elements of each of these and you will get stronger.”
You need to be able to move your own bodyweight before you add any additional weight so exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups and dips are a great start. “When you can do that, add an additional element of resistance such as bands or an RX suspension trainer,” says Dalton Wong, director of TwentyTwo Training. “Then eventually move on to weights.” Sadkin says dumbbells are safer to use than kettlebells for beginners as “there is less room for error”.
If a workout is brief, do the weights need to be heavier?
Not necessarily. Nosaka says that for a strength exercise lasting just three seconds you ideally need to put in maximum effort with as heavy a weight as you can lift without straining. “But if you can’t manage a maximal eccentric contraction, then submaximal eccentric contractions – such as lowering a medium-heavy dumbbell slowly several times – can still achieve results,” he says.
An alternative for the time-crunched is to focus on compound moves that work multiple large muscles at the same time. “Deadlifts and press-ups are a really good choice as they achieve a lot in one exercise,” says Mike Tanner, head of education at Bodyism gym in Notting Hill. “A push-up is basically a plank with a push thrown in, so you want things that get you more bang for your buck.”
Does reformer Pilates count?
If you are entirely new to exercise and take up “reformer Pilates”, which is performed on equipment with straps and pulleys, you are likely to experience some strength gains because you will be moving against your own bodyweight and the mechanism of the reformer. “But it would be very difficult to get beyond those initial improvements using only a reformer machine,” says Luke Worthington, personal trainer to Jodie Comer and Robert Pattinson.
“Reformer Pilates is a great way to build mobility and motor control but it doesn’t allow us to create the progressive overload needed for continued strength gains.” Barre is another option for beginners, says Wong, although with the same limitations. “You’d need to add more resistance after time,” he says.
What’s the best group strength-training class?
Body Pump, a fast-paced, barbell-based group workout to music that was launched in 1990, remains one of the most popular classes on the timetable at many gyms, including F45, the rapidly expanding Australian franchise, which includes functional (hence the F) exercises that involve lifting, pushing, pulling and squatting in each 45-minute class.
“These sorts of classes are great for introducing people to weight-training equipment if they have never used it before,” Worthington says. “However, in the longer term, strength training doesn’t tend to lend itself too well to a group-class format, as exercise selection for progressive strength gains is highly individual.” If that’s all that motivates you, though, it’s better than doing nothing at all.
Should you lift slowly?
Beginners should always start with slower, better-controlled movement. “Generally speaking you shouldn’t try to lift weights fast until you have mastered the technique of doing them very well slowly first,” Worthington says. “As a starting point, aim for a weight you can lift for six to eight repetitions with good control.” Think about moving slower on the way down – the eccentric phase of any lift.
“The slower you go on the eccentric phase, the longer time under tension you create for your muscles, and this is helpful in gaining strength,” Tanner says. As you become more proficient you can experiment with speed, bearing in mind you will probably need to switch to lighter weights for a greater number of repetitions at a faster pace.
“Lifting weights faster can help to develop speed and power,” Worthington says. “But this is only for someone who already has good foundations of strength.”
If you do one exercise …
Make it the squat. “There are so many variations that can improve all aspects of strength and fitness,” Sadkin says. “The perfect strength exercise is a squat in which you start with dumbbells at your shoulders, then you push up from the bent-knee squat, simultaneously pressing the weights up towards the ceiling – it works all parts of the body.”
Faster squats will improve endurance as well as strength, while slower squats – in which you count to six as you descend, pause at the bottom and jump up – will boost muscle power and strength. “Do them with weights as you get stronger and start with three sets of ten repetitions and build up,” Sadkin says. “If you do nothing else, do these two to three times a week.”
Add daily stair-climbing
Any activity that requires moving your body against a little more load and with a little more force than previous occasions will elicit strength gains. “Stair-climbing repetitions can do that if you’ve never done resistance before,” Worthington says. Stair-descending is particularly beneficial because it involves the kind of eccentric muscle contractions that Nosaka advocates for strength gains.
“However, once your body has adapted to climbing stairs a few times a day, you’ll need to add some extra resistance, which you can do by carrying a heavy bag or by stair climbing two at a time,” Worthington says. “And then increase the number of flights you climb on a daily basis.”
Wong says walking or running up and down hills has a similar effect.
Try the slo-mo chair-sit
If you do nothing else, sit down in slow motion every time you lower yourself onto a chair or sofa. “We have been investigating the effects of sitting to a chair slowly – an eccentric exercise – on walking ability, balance and other factors in older adults, and found it to be very effective,” Nosaka says.
Typically, he says, we sit down about ten times a day. “If we sit very slowly every time we do it, we perform at least ten submaximal eccentric contractions of the knee extensor muscles every day. It provides the perfect opportunity for us to perform eccentric exercise and simulate our leg muscles effectively on a daily basis.” When you’re in position, perform some glute squeezes.
The Times
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