If you find it difficult to fit a long workout into your schedule, then here’s some good news: according to an article in the New York Times, researchers continue to find that even very short durations of high-intensity exercise can provide significant health benefits. How short exactly? Shockingly short.

• Five Minutes: One recent observational study suggests that runners live longer than non-runners, regardless of the amount or speed of their running—even if it’s just five minutes a day at a slow pace.
• Ten Minutes: Even a single minute of very intense exercise (cycling) within an otherwise painless ten-minute workout has been shown to lead to improvements in endurance, blood sugar control, and blood pressure.
• Twelve Minutes: Another recent study reported that just one minute of brisk walking followed by one minute of strolling—repeated six times, three times per day—helped control blood sugar in people at risk for diabetes better than a continuous 30-minute walk.

The lesson? For many people, science is revealing that they can get the benefits of exercise without drastically changing their daily schedule.

Source: New York Times