What Are Intermittent Workouts?
Intermittent workouts are based on the frequency and the high impact that happens in short periods of time. A mini version of a standard workout, they do not last much longer than a few minutes at a time. They can be spread out evenly throughout the day or scheduled with a timer. Intermittent workouts can be used throughout the day to target different areas of your body.
Physical Benefits
Taking a few mini sessions a day to work on your target areas will help you meet your goals. It will also help you maintain and restore any lost energy as you continue through these workouts. Additional attention to target areas will boost confidence and energy, encouraging you to continue with these workouts daily. Find new ways for stress relief throughout the day and strengthen your bones and muscles with each workout. According to former U.S. Navy Crewman Craig Weller, naval officers were known to “set a timer on their watch and every hour they’d do a set or a couple of sets of push-ups.”
Choices and Variety
With intermittent workouts, you have the endless availability of choice. If you want to focus on one exercise at each interval, you can do so to break up target areas throughout the day. You can also choose to mix up your exercises, combining intervals of planks, lunges, or squats for the lower body.
Which exercises you choose and how many are completely up to you. While it is not necessary, you can opt to add weights to your training. According to Weller, over time, “you start to change the association your brain has with that activity.” Instead of associating squats or push-ups with a painful session at the gym and a spike in stress hormones, you normalize the activity. It becomes “just part of your repertoire,” he explains.
Mental Benefits
How you look at your day starts to change with the use of intermittent workouts. Maintaining mental health is just as important as physical health. These workouts have shown in the past to shift the way someone views their day and “you normalize the activity.” That becomes a part of your daily life, according to Weller. How you perceive these intermittent workouts will shift your mentality around working out and progressing through the day.
Reducing Stress & Anxiety
Since both stress and anxiety have foundations in physical and mental health, reducing them as much as possible with exercise has always been the claim of experts. With intermittent workouts, your body is not undergoing long periods of physical stress. It has the ability to eliminate the stress that is currently building within or following a stressful interaction.
Returning To Society With Intermittent Workouts
As everything begins to open up and society starts to roll back into normal strides, intermittent workouts can be a resourceful way to keep up with your workouts and physical activity. For example, trying to acclimate back into your daily routine could cause some anxiety and stress right away. Your focus and schedule may be off and you could have a difficult time readjusting. With intermittent workouts, you are able to clear your mind, reduce stress, and reset so that you can focus and get back on task.
According to Tom Holland, those long and often dreaded gym workouts that don’t even work with your schedule are not as helpful as originally thought. Mini workout sessions have less stress on your body and keep you energized throughout the day.
Sworkit Is Here To Help!
If you are ready to start intermittent workouts but not sure where to start, Sworkit has Quiet Home Workouts for five-minute intervals for three times or more a week. Fitness should be simple and available to everyone. Even those with small spaces can get the workout they need for maximum results. Find us here for more information.
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