Seven minutes of exercise is all it takes?

To a long distance runner, it might seem heretical that any sort of meaningful exercise could be accomplished in 7 minutes. Seventy minutes maybe. Seven minutes is barely long enough to warm up muscles and speed up your heart, right? 

But, that was before I read an article, “The Scientific 7-minute workout," and gave the idea a try-out.

The technique centers on some recent exercise research that proved the value of high-intensity interval training.  Interval training, so the story goes, even a few minutes of it, “produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.”

The regimen requires you to proceed through 12 familiar exercises (pushups, lunges, jumping jacks, etc.), thirty seconds each, with 10 second intervals. You’re supposed to perform at a level that is “unpleasant”—about an 8 on a 1-10 discomfort scale.

The only piece of equipment you need is a chair.

I’ve been testing the idea mainly after work on a busy day, when there’s time for little else in the way of a workout. 

The whole process takes less than ten minutes.  Change your shoes, set the timer on a smartphone, grab a sturdy chair, and you’re ready to go.

The only apparent failing in the experiment for me so far is an inability to run through all 12 exercises in seven minutes. Even though I think I’m counting the 30s properly in my head, when the timer goes off, I’m usually still on exercise nine or ten. I think I can get better at this; it’s a personal challenge to do all twelve in exactly seven minutes. 

But the upshot is that it works, if huffing and puffing and general discomfort is any measure.

And, when you’re done—lying on the floor after a side plank finale, you do indeed feel about like you have run hard for an hour.

Read the New York Times Magazine story here: The Scientific 7-MinuteWorkout