Everybody knows that exercise is beneficial, but what does it take to get benefits?

If you prefer spending as little time as possible exercising because you have plenty of other things you want to do, this should interest you.

The following research investigated if the interruption of prolonged 8 hours sitting with hourly cycling sprints of only 4 seconds duration each would lower blood triglycerides (fat) and increase fat oxidation (burning of fat for energy) (Wolfe A, et.al., 2020).

The participants were both men and women, and they did five 4 seconds sprints per hour for 8 hours. That ends up to be a total of 160 seconds in 8 hours.

Triglyceride levels and fat oxidation (burning of fat for energy) were measured the next day after sitting for 8 hours, and also measured the next day after the sprint cycling.

When the researchers looked at the results they found a decrease in blood triglyceride levels and a 43% increase in whole-body fat oxidation the day after the cycling sprints compared to the 8 hours of sitting.

The cycling was done at maximal intensity, but most people can handle maximal intensity for 4 seconds.

Reference
Wolfe AS, Burton HM, Vardarli E, Coyle EF. Hourly 4-s Sprints Prevent Impairment of Postprandial Fat Metabolism from Inactivity. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2020 Oct;52(10):2262-2269.