My motto is that something is always better than nothing but microworkouts are actually extremely beneficial. I am currently doing some workouts in nearby parks in Gold Coast, Australia! So nice to make some vitamin D for a little longer before Canadian winter, but any park or kids play ground or your own living room will do, all you need is a few minutes and a little motivation.
Here is an example workout – Today I did some box jumps onto one of the park platforms for 1 minute, about 20 jumps, gets your heart going for sure! Take 30 second rest. Then I did some dips on some horizontal bars, 2 sets of 8-10 with about 5 second break in between. Another 30 second rest. Then I did some pull-ups on the bars, 3-4 reps a few times and voila, workout done!
You can choose any 3 body weight exercises every day, you can do it anywhere, anytime. I will post some videos of microworkout examples but today was too windy, my phone would have blown away ha.
Here are some reasons why you should try incorporating microworkouts into your day:
• It is a quick but high intensity workout, great for cardiovascular fitness
• Increases blood flow and lymphatic drainage helping your body to circulate nutrients and get rid of waste
• It is energizing! It gives you a burst of stimulating hormones like epinephrine that can help get you out of a lull in the day and get your brain back on track to concentrate at school or work (microworkouts make great study breaks!!)
• It stimulates whichever muscle groups you are working on and if you keep the intensity at 80% or higher of your maximum ability then you will see improvements in strength
• Doing multi-muscle movements increases coordination, strength, balance, and flexibility
• You won’t over train, you can do microworkouts everyday, even if you still do normal gym workouts or other sports
• It is not stressful on your body or your mind to workout for a few minutes
• You can fit it into any busy schedule
• You don’t need equipment or pay for a gym membership
• You make endorphins that combat stress hormones
• Increases your metabolism and keeps you burning a few extra calories for at least an hour after the workout
• And one of my favorite reasons….you get a cumulative effect of getting more reps in per week for any given body weight exercise. For example, doing a few pull-ups everyday can amount to 50 reps in a week; most people would be unlikely to do that many in a single gym workout. So you can make pretty significant improvements in a short period of time.
I love this idea! We always can find 5 minutes a day! And it’s such a good break from work or study too!