"Exercise Snacks" to Improve & Maintain Fitness | Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | [silence]
00:00:02.440 | Exercise snacks.
00:00:04.360 | And as the name suggests, this is a fun one.
00:00:07.080 | And was suggested by Dr. Andy Galpin
00:00:09.200 | as a way to either enhance or maintain your fitness
00:00:12.840 | depending on how your core
00:00:14.320 | or foundational fitness program is going.
00:00:16.800 | So when I say core, I don't mean your abs.
00:00:18.620 | I mean, whether or not you're getting your regular cardio
00:00:21.120 | and your regular resistance training.
00:00:23.000 | If you were to add one
00:00:24.520 | or several of these exercise snacks per week,
00:00:27.160 | it can further improve things like VO2 max,
00:00:29.600 | muscular endurance, et cetera.
00:00:31.240 | I'll talk about the specific snacks
00:00:33.120 | that you will be doing in a moment.
00:00:35.320 | However, as Dr. Andy Galpin also pointed out,
00:00:37.920 | there are times in which we happen to not be following
00:00:41.020 | our foundational fitness program,
00:00:42.760 | either because work demands or family demands
00:00:45.880 | or we're traveling.
00:00:47.320 | We're simply not keeping up with our basic routine.
00:00:50.240 | And under those conditions,
00:00:51.320 | exercise snacks are a terrific way to maintain the fitness
00:00:54.340 | that you've already built and developed.
00:00:56.440 | And you don't lose any ground in a week,
00:00:59.120 | say, where you get particularly busy.
00:01:01.320 | Now, exercise snacks can take on a variety
00:01:03.340 | of different forms,
00:01:04.640 | but for sake of simplicity and clarity,
00:01:07.200 | today we're going to divide them into two major categories.
00:01:10.020 | The first category are exercise snacks
00:01:12.320 | that are going to improve
00:01:13.760 | or maintain your cardiovascular fitness,
00:01:16.440 | so your ability to run or cycle or row
00:01:19.120 | some distance, say, 12 minutes or longer, okay?
00:01:22.880 | But keep in mind,
00:01:23.720 | these exercise snacks are very, very brief.
00:01:25.480 | They don't require that you do them
00:01:26.760 | for 12 minutes or longer.
00:01:28.360 | What they're going to do is either maintain
00:01:30.160 | or enhance the type of endurance
00:01:32.760 | that allows you to continue in an activity
00:01:35.560 | for 12 minutes or longer.
00:01:37.000 | The second category of exercise snack
00:01:39.140 | relates to muscular endurance.
00:01:41.240 | Muscular endurance is a very important aspect of fitness.
00:01:44.280 | And even though some people are already training
00:01:46.020 | for muscular endurance,
00:01:47.360 | it's something that most people
00:01:48.700 | are not doing enough training for.
00:01:51.080 | Muscular endurance is your ability, say,
00:01:53.320 | to maintain a wall sit or to maintain a plank
00:01:56.240 | or to do the maximum number of push-ups
00:01:58.160 | that you can do in one session,
00:01:59.960 | the sort of, you know, drop to the floor
00:02:01.240 | and give me as many push-ups as you possibly can
00:02:03.080 | type of thing, or as many sit-ups as you can type of thing.
00:02:06.040 | Muscular endurance translates
00:02:07.240 | to a number of other aspects of fitness,
00:02:09.240 | and it's something that we should all be working on.
00:02:11.580 | And again, many people just don't make space for it
00:02:13.960 | in their regular routine.
00:02:15.480 | So now we have these two categories of exercise snacks,
00:02:18.440 | one geared toward enhancing
00:02:20.280 | or maintaining your cardiovascular fitness
00:02:23.480 | as it translates to longer duration endurance activity,
00:02:27.480 | so 12 minutes or longer.
00:02:28.680 | And then the other category is purely muscular endurance,
00:02:31.620 | which is essentially some bout of exercise
00:02:33.620 | that's going to be fairly brief,
00:02:35.000 | anywhere from a minute to two minutes,
00:02:36.540 | but certainly less than 12 minutes.
00:02:38.120 | Okay, so let me give you an example of an exercise snack
00:02:40.880 | for enhancing your long duration endurance,
00:02:43.640 | 12 minutes or longer.
00:02:44.560 | And this is the sort of thing
00:02:46.020 | that if you're going to incorporate into your routine,
00:02:48.440 | and I highly recommend that you do,
00:02:50.240 | can essentially be done anytime with no warmup.
00:02:53.880 | A good example of an exercise snack of this type
00:02:56.400 | would be to suddenly stand up from your desk
00:02:59.420 | and to do a hundred jumping jacks.
00:03:01.640 | Now, depending on how fit you are
00:03:03.520 | and how fast you do those jumping jacks
00:03:06.040 | and how wide and tall you do those jumping jacks,
00:03:09.080 | meaning are you doing these kind of little things
00:03:10.740 | where your hands don't actually meet
00:03:12.360 | and you're parting your legs just a little bit,
00:03:14.260 | or are you doing full jumping jacks
00:03:15.680 | where you're really jumping and setting your feet out
00:03:18.980 | as wide as you comfortably and safely can
00:03:21.080 | and then bring your hands together,
00:03:22.400 | it could take you anywhere from 30 seconds to 90 seconds.
00:03:26.120 | Okay, so in the case of jumping jacks,
00:03:28.400 | you may end up doing this for 90 seconds,
00:03:30.440 | but the point is to simply do a hundred jumping jacks.
00:03:33.280 | Or if that takes too long,
00:03:34.800 | you can even do just 25 or 50 jumping jacks.
00:03:38.100 | The point is that it's going to get you
00:03:39.280 | moving your muscles.
00:03:40.880 | It's going to get your heart rate up.
00:03:43.080 | Even if you're very, very fit,
00:03:44.440 | if you're doing these fast enough
00:03:45.740 | and you're doing them with proper form,
00:03:47.640 | it's going to get your heart rate up and then you're done.
00:03:50.580 | You can sit back down to your desk
00:03:51.980 | or you can continue to walk through the airport.
00:03:54.420 | Yes, I've done these in the airport,
00:03:56.420 | typically not while walking toward my gate,
00:03:58.540 | but at the gate.
00:03:59.540 | But occasionally I'm feeling lethargic
00:04:01.100 | or I haven't had the opportunity to train that day.
00:04:03.740 | And perhaps I won't get the opportunity to train.
00:04:06.540 | So I'll do something like a hundred jumping jacks
00:04:08.560 | while facing the window.
00:04:10.380 | So it feels a little less awkward
00:04:12.300 | facing people while you're doing them.
00:04:14.060 | And of course you don't have to do jumping jacks.
00:04:15.720 | An equally effective type of exercise snack
00:04:18.520 | is to find a stairwell and to simply go up that stairwell
00:04:22.140 | as fast as you safely can for 20 to 30 seconds.
00:04:26.620 | So perhaps just find the bottom of a stairwell
00:04:28.860 | and go up that stairwell as quickly as you can.
00:04:30.980 | And perhaps go down as quickly as you can.
00:04:32.460 | And just keep doing that for about 20 to 40 seconds.
00:04:34.820 | And then you're essentially done.
00:04:36.980 | You could also opt to pick some distance
00:04:40.180 | away from your car in the parking lot,
00:04:42.060 | assuming you're not carrying any heavy bags or anything,
00:04:44.160 | and simply run to your car.
00:04:45.980 | So 20 to 30 seconds of not necessarily all out sprinting.
00:04:50.460 | You don't want to injure yourself because again,
00:04:52.020 | this is done without a warmup.
00:04:53.500 | These exercise snacks are designed to be inserted
00:04:55.540 | into your day and into your week, essentially at random.
00:04:59.020 | You could plan them if you want,
00:05:00.620 | but anytime you feel inspired
00:05:02.040 | or perhaps anytime you're feeling
00:05:03.500 | like you don't want to do one,
00:05:04.820 | you could simply do one of these exercise snacks.
00:05:07.460 | And of course doing jumping jacks or running to your car
00:05:11.480 | or taking the stairs very quickly up and down
00:05:14.140 | or just up and then walking down, for instance,
00:05:16.540 | and doing a few jumping jacks, things of that sort,
00:05:19.380 | of course can take on a near infinite number
00:05:21.800 | of different variations.
00:05:23.740 | So if you don't like any of the variations
00:05:25.800 | that I just presented,
00:05:26.980 | you can easily come up with something else.
00:05:28.620 | Again, the purpose of these exercise snacks
00:05:31.100 | is to get your heart rate up.
00:05:32.820 | It's of course to do this while not getting injured.
00:05:35.780 | And it is entirely compatible
00:05:37.860 | with an existing exercise program.
00:05:40.180 | It in no way is going to impede your performance
00:05:43.340 | in strength or hypertrophy
00:05:44.740 | or other forms of long-form endurance
00:05:46.540 | or high-intensity interval training, quite to the contrary.
00:05:49.520 | Everything we know about these exercise snacks
00:05:51.220 | is that they enhance various aspects of your physiology
00:05:54.160 | in ways that promote both recovery and performance
00:05:58.060 | in your other types of exercise
00:06:00.020 | and your other types of athletic endeavors.
00:06:01.860 | So no reason to think that they are going to be problematic
00:06:04.020 | for your training, but of course, don't trip, don't fall,
00:06:07.260 | don't undertake a movement
00:06:08.780 | that puts you into a range of motion
00:06:10.120 | that has you hurting your back or your knee
00:06:11.700 | or any other part of your body.
00:06:13.100 | You know, start off slowly
00:06:14.580 | and find something that really works for you.
00:06:16.260 | So these are very easy.
00:06:17.700 | They take very little time.
00:06:20.020 | They're fun, to be honest.
00:06:21.660 | And as was discussed in the conversation
00:06:24.300 | with Dr. Andy Galpin, they're also very effective.
00:06:27.260 | [upbeat music]
00:06:30.660 | [upbeat music]
00:06:33.240 | you