How to get fit in 10 minutes or less

Want to improve your fitness this year? Start with small ambitions — the results will be better.

Studies show that just 10 minutes of running each day you will improve your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol levels and start to get rid of body fat. Picture: AP

Your new year resolve may be floundering already, but is that because you set the bar too high? Promises to do daily spinning classes or train for a marathon are hard to keep when the sacrifice is your limited relaxation time. And it’s soul-destroying to exclude unhealthy carbs from a diet previously full of them.

There is, however, a solution: adopt healthy new habits, but in the most minimal way possible so that they are manageable and, crucially, mean you are less likely to quit. It’s a theory that has caught the imagination of James Clear, the author of a new book called Atomic Habits. Tiny changes, he says, can bring remarkable results, and we should focus on becoming 1 per cent better at something each day. In other words, don’t say you will cycle 15km to work each day until you can manage 10 minutes. And don’t berate yourself for failing to hit the gym three times a week when you have previously never managed to sign a membership form.

The impact of aiming small can be life-changing. Kenneth Mackenzie, 56, a fashion designer and university lecturer from north London, had never been a runner before challenging himself to jog 1.5km a day for 12 months from March 2017. He went on to train for and complete two half marathons. “The manageable amount helps, although to run every day has a huge effect on your lifestyle and mentally it’s tough,” he admits. “Fundamentally, though, it’s had a very positive effect. It’s one of the most important experiences of my later life.”

For Mackenzie, his mile-a-day routine was a gateway to greater challenges, but the following micro-regimens can reap dividends even if you don’t expand on them at all.

The 10-minute run

John Brewer, professor of applied sport science at St Mary’s University in Britain, says that even with just a few minutes a day you will improve your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol levels and get rid of body fat. “Your body will also become more efficient, so that the amount of oxygen your muscles can use will increase, as will your endurance levels,” he says.

A 2014 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology involving 55,137 adults showed that “running, even five to 10 minutes a day and at slow speeds of less than 10km/h, was associated with markedly reduced risks of death from all causes and cardiovascular disease”. In the trial, even those who ran a total of less than 10km a week or for a total time of less than 51 minutes, or who ran on just one or two days a week, were found to be protected against a heart attack or stroke compared with non-runners.

People who ran persistently, however slowly and even for short durations, were up to 50 per cent less likely to suffer cardiovascular disease.

How to do it: Brewer says that novice runners will reap the most benefit from regular 10-minute jogs. “As your fitness improves, you will need to increase the pace and intensity,” he says. One way to progress without spending too much more time on your feet is to try the 10-20-30 approach to running, an interval training routine devised by Danish scientists that involves jogging gently for 30 seconds, accelerating to a moderate pace for 20 seconds, then sprinting as hard as you can for 10 seconds. Repeat five times, rest for two minutes, and repeat five times again, twice a week. The session takes 12 minutes to complete.

A seven-minute circuit

A 2013 paper published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal changed our perspective on what constitutes a gym session, with its authors, from the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, outlining 12 exercises that will improve strength as effectively as any gym session, yet which require nothing more than a chair, a wall and your body weight to complete. The routine takes just seven ­minutes to complete, although it’s done at an intensity that leaves you huffing and puffing. The upside is that you are finished in the time it could take you to wait for a weights ­machine to become available at the gym.

How to do it: Exercises in the official routine include wall-sits, jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches, step-ups, squats, triceps dips, planks, high-knees running on the spot, lunges, push-ups with ­rotation and side planks. You need to perform each for 30 seconds, working as hard as you can and ideally taking only a 10-second rest between exercises. Try to alternate an exercise that works the large muscles in the upper body (such as push-ups and triceps dips) with those in the lower body (step-ups or squats) for maximum effect. It’s tough and if you haven’t exercised in a while you should get medical advice before trying any high-intensity workout.

The nine-minute weight training session

In a paper published this month in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, exercise physiologists at Lehman College in New York asked participants to perform eight to 12 repetitions of exercises with weights, lifting until their muscles were too tired to do any more — called “lifting to failure” in gym-speak. What differed was that some were asked to perform five sets in a session of 70 minutes, some did three sets in 40 minutes, while another lot did one set, spending only 13 minutes in the gym. Muscle measurements revealed that strength gains were similar across all three groups over a two-month period.

Another study, led by James Fisher, a sport scientist at Solent University in Britain and published last year in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, found that a program of nine exercises with weights machines — including leg press, chest press and lat pull-down — performed for 60 to 90 seconds each, achieved significant strength gains and lowered blood sugar levels. “Our paper showed that you don’t need to spend two hours in the gym five times a week, as many people think,” Fisher says.

How to do it: Select weights that are sufficiently heavy to allow you to complete eight to 12 repetitions or to lift for 60 seconds before you are too tired — for many, a starting weight would be about 2kg. Try to include exercises for the upper and lower body — step-up with weight, upright row, lunge with weight, dumbbell squat, Russian twist and chest press — and perform a set of three exercises for 60 seconds each without stopping between. Take a 60-second break and move on to the second set of three exercises (preferably different) performed for 60 seconds each. Rest for 60 seconds before a third set. Fisher says you can lift “at any pace”, but don’t hold your breath when lifting. Try to do this routine two or three times a week.

The two-minute walk

Clocking up 30 minutes of walking a day can be tricky, but walking for just two minutes every hour is just as beneficial. Having monitored the habits of 4840 adults aged 40-plus, researchers reporting in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology last year found that exercise doesn’t need to be prolonged, but it has to be consistent. A previous study at the University of Utah (in 2015) showed that adding two minutes of walking each hour of your working day can offset the effects of prolonged sitting.

How to do it: Set a timer for two minutes each hour and go for a quick walk. Repeat 15 times daily.

Tai chi (or yoga) for 10 minutes

These ancient art forms are known to produce an enhanced range of motion, better posture and balance, and increased self-awareness and self-esteem, but to that can be added a healthier memory. Researchers from the University of California and the University of Tsukuba in Japan reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year that even 10 minutes of tai chi or yoga can increase the connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation.

Others have shown that yoga needn’t demand hours of dedication. In a study of men and women in their 60s and 70s carried out at New York University by Loren Fishman in 2016, a mini yoga routine of 12 postures was found to help to reverse osteoporotic bone loss in the hips and spine. And 15 minutes of tai chi has been found to significantly improve sleep, energy levels, mobility and mental attitude in people with chronic fatigue.

How to do it: Fishman’s routine included 12 common yoga asanas, or poses: the tree, triangle, warrior II, side-angle, twisted triangle, ­locust, bridge, supine hand-to-foot I, supine hand-to-foot II, straight-legged twist, bent-knee twist and corpse pose. Each was held for 30 seconds. The daily regimen takes 12 minutes to complete.

Mindfulness for 10 minutes

Owen O’Kane is the clinical lead for the NHS west London mental health service and runs a private stress-management class where his clients include high-flyers from the BBC, Goldman Sachs, Bupa, Virgin Atlantic and the NHS. In his new book, Ten to Zen, he says 10 minutes a day of mindful thought creates the right headspace to set you up for a day free of anxiety.

“Every morning, most of us will spend about 10 minutes in the shower, 10 minutes making and eating breakfast, but no time at all tending to our minds,” O’Kane says. “Yet by dedicating just 10 minutes to prepare your mind — preferably first thing — you will soon start to break negative patterns of behaviour and thought.” He has a point. A 2017 study at the University of Waterloo found that 10 minutes of daily mindful meditation helped to prevent anxious thoughts for the rest of the day.

How to do it: Find somewhere quiet and undisturbed to sit for a timed 10 minutes. “Begin by just stopping and checking in with yourself — don’t launch into the day on autopilot, but take stock and think about how you feel and whether you are stressed, sad, angry or happy,” O’Kane says. Phase two is to accept the emotions you are feeling, even if they aren’t pleasant. “We all waste a lot of time and energy trying to block negative emotions, but we are only human and we shouldn’t fear them. They can be a signpost to helping us live more effectively, so if you are anxious it is a signal to slow down.” In phase three think only in the present moment. “Too many of us get distressed about the past or worried about the future and by fixating on these concerns we contribute to our own anxiety levels,” O’Kane says. “Stop, quieten your mind and think no farther ahead than the next second.”

A 10-minute diet game

If you are struggling to reset your dietary cravings after festive indulgences, the FoodT brain-training app developed by psychologists at the University of Exeter could help. Its creator, Natalia Lawrence, a cognitive neuroscientist, says it is based on the concept of “response inhibition training”, which is known to reduce overeating and drinking. In trials involving 83 adults, Lawrence found people who played the game online four times in one week lost weight and ate an average of 220 calories less a day — equivalent to a chocolate-iced doughnut.

How to do it: Download the FoodT app — it’s free — from exeter.ac.uk/foodt/ or the app store and start playing the game once a day for the first week, then once a month. The game works by flashing images of healthy and less healthy food. Your task is to react by pressing when nutritious items appear on your screen, ignoring the biscuits, crisps and chips.

The Times