As a physician, I talk about exercise to all of my patients. One of the most common things I hear is “Doc I don’t have any time to exercise”. Well, I have great news. I don’t think anybody would argue that they don’t have 4–5-minute intervals throughout the day that they could devote to exercise. Well, studies have shown that six 5-minute exercise sessions give the same benefit as one 30-minute exercise session. These are called exercise snacks, because it is not like a big meal (a thirty-minute session) but rather multiple smaller snacks throughout the day.
I have developed a 5-minute exercise session that can be done multiple times daily in any setting because it requires no equipment. It works on flexibility, strength and cardiovascular.
The first exercise is for flexibility. Start off doing a squat. If you cannot do a squat, sit in a chair. Reach down to put your hands on the floor. Raise your right arm and twist to the right. Use your right arm to stretch like you are reaching for something just out of your grasp. You should feel a stretch in your shoulder, upper and lower back. Now switch arms and reach with the left arm. Now stand up and do a forward fold. Make sure to hinge at the hips and keep your back flat. The stretch should be felt in your hamstrings. Now stand up and reach overhead doing a slight back bend. Again, stretch your arms like trying to reach something just out of your grasp.
The first strength exercise is the pushup. The pushup works the chest, shoulders, and triceps. If done correctly it also works the core. Aim for 10 pushups. When doing a pushup, make sure you work your core by tightening your abdominal muscles and your glutes. If you cannot do regular pushups a better alternative than knee pushups is elevating your pushup. Doing knee pushups takes the core benefit out of the exercise. Stand against a wall and do pushups off the wall. As you get stronger lower the pushup to the back of a chair, then the seat of a chair or a bench, until eventually you can do a regular pushup. If you can already do regular pushups and think 10 is not a lot of pushups, remember you will be doing 60 throughout the day. You also can add a few pushups to each session if you want.
The second strength exercise is the squat. Squats are fantastic lower body exercises. To do a squat, have your feet shoulder width apart, bend at the knees until your legs are parallel to the floor. Keep your trunk upright doing this. If you cannot do a squat, then sit in a chair, lean forward and stand. It is important to master the squat because it is important for balance and fall prevention, as well as everyday things like just getting out of a chair. Do 15 squats.
Next work up to a 30-second plank. To do a plank, lie down on your stomach, rest on your forearms and contract your chest, abdominals and glutes.
After the plank, do a superman. To do a superman, lie down on your stomach and raise your arms overhead and your feet off of the ground. You should feel this in your lower back region. If this is too intense, at first don’t raise your feet. If this is still too intense, don’t raise your arms, just raise your trunk off the floor. If even this is too intense, do a cobra and raise your trunk with some support from your arms. If you do any of these movements in which you do not raise your feet off of the ground, press your feet into the floor and make sure you contract your glues.
The next move is for the upper back and is called goal posts. Stand up straight and bend your elbows at shoulder level so you look like a goal post. Try to pull your shoulder blades together as you raise and lower your arms overhead. You should feel this in your upper back. Work for 10 repetitions.
Next move down to your calves and do 10 calf raises. This works on your calves and balance. Try to pause for a second or two at the top of the movement.
The last movement is for your heart and is called high knees. Do thirty seconds of walking in place and raising your knees as high as you can. If your fitness permits, instead of walking, run in place and bring your knees up high.
This program works on strength, cardiovascular fitness as well as working on flexibility. Five-minute intervals should be obtainable for anyone. Hopefully this takes away one more reason for not exercising.
For a video of this program and demonstrations of the exercises as well as the variations for different fitness levels please see the video “Exercise Snacks” on my YouTube channel DocMiketheexercisedoc. You can access it by clicking on the YouTube button at the top of the home page.
That’s all for now. See you next time.