Does 7 Minute Workout

Becoming bored or complacent in your workout happens. We have all experienced it. The treadmill seems daunting, the weight rack is a pain and the yoga mat is mocking you from across the room. It’s times like these when getting to the gym or even finding motivation to workout becomes so much more difficult. We totally understand. It sucks. If you’re sick of this routine, you could benefit from the 7-Minute Workout.

Yep. You read that right. Seven minutes.

We know what you’re thinking. You can’t possibly get fit and see results from such a short workout. But you can! And science supports that fact.

WHAT IS THE 7-MINUTE WORKOUT?

While standard guidelines for aerobic training recommend 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity exercises or 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity exercise, most of us just don’t have the time to go to the gym on a consistent basis for an hour at a time. But that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to a lifetime of inactivity and bad health.

Shorter, more intense workouts with limited rest between individual exercises could be the solution. These types of workouts, also known as high-intensity circuit training (HICT), certainly aren’t new but have grown in popularity in recent years.

The 7-Minute Workout hit the scene in May 2013 with an article by the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal which was picked up by The New York Times and subsequently went viral. The article took several studies that had determined HICT has similar benefits on health and weight loss as longer, lower-intensity workouts and created a sample 12-exercise workout.

This workout combines aerobic and resistance-training exercises into a single circuit lasting only seven minutes, and it requires no special equipment. Body weight provides all the resistance needed, which means you can do this workout anywhere. Exercises are performed for 30 seconds, with 10 seconds of transition time between each one. You do as many reps of an exercise as you can during that 30 seconds, but at the very minimum, you should aim to do 15 to 20 repetitions. It’s also important to complete each exercise with proper form and technique.

Furthermore, the order and types the exercises matter greatly; you can’t just throw together any old moves you know.