How three minutes of exercise a week could change your life

What makes my cycling unusual is the intensity of my exercise

Current advice from the NHS suggests that in order to stay healthy, adults should take either 150 minutes — that’s two-and-a-half hours — of ‘moderate’ exercise a week, or 75 minutes of ‘vigorous’ exercise.
But a growing number of studies — from proper scientists, not wacky weirdos — suggest that the benefits of exercise could be achieved in much less time if you go in for very short bursts of very high-intensity exercise.
How short? Well, just one minute, three times a week. Yes, you read that correctly.
Three minutes a week. Those three minutes can be split into six bursts of 30 seconds over the week, or nine bursts of 20 seconds. But they must be totally full-on.
So-called High Intensive Training (HIT) has been bubbling around for a number of years — since at least 2005, when ground-breaking researchers at McMaster University in Canada referred to it as ‘sprint interval training’.
But now, argue its proponents, it’s on the verge of becoming mainstream thinking.
There have been more than a dozen published studies into HIT’s benefits; several of them, including one of 29 people in the European Journal of Applied Physiology last year, suggested that it substantially improves cardiovascular fitness and reduces the risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
British researcher Dr Jamie Timmons, professor of systems biology at Loughborough University, is at the forefront of research into HIT, leading a clinical trial of 300 overweight volunteers to help establish its benefits.
His results may, in time, fundamentally change the exercise advice doled out by governments worldwide.
How does HIT work? Dr Timmons says no one knows for certain . . . yet.
‘We’ve got enough independent evidence, from different labs, to say this happens. Now we’re trying to establish why.’

At the start and end of each exercise regimen, I will have my measurements taken in order to gauge my progress (pictured with with Health Advisor Kate Charrington)

You start by cycling very slowly for three minutes; then it's 30 seconds of madness at full pelt; three minutes very slowly again; 30 more mad seconds; then three slow minutes to finish

THE ULTIMATE QUICK-FIX PLAN

Professor Jamie Timmons explains how you, too, can  do HIT . . .

• You need to use either a cross-trainer or a static bicycle, and it needs to be heavy (ideally bolted to the floor). A treadmill won’t work because it doesn’t work all the muscles. You could do it on an outdoor bike — but for the fast bits you’d have to ride up a steep hill. Swimming won’t help either, as it doesn’t build up enough resistance in the muscles.

• Go as fast as you can, as hard as you can. You need to give it 100 per cent effort. Of course, as you get fitter, your 100 per cent effort will get more and more powerful. In order to get used to HIT, it’s good to start off gradually (but not slowly), so in your first session, just do one 20-second burst. In your second session, do two 20-second bursts.

• Here’s how a typical session works. Go very gently (around 50W, if your bike has a digital readout for power) for two minutes. Then set the bike to high power and do a full-on burst of 20 seconds. Then gently for two minutes. Then another full-on burst of 20 seconds. Then gently for another two minutes. Then another full-on burst of 20 seconds. Finally, a gentle two minutes to cool down. That’s nine minutes in total, of which one minute is intensive exercise.