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‘If you’re already working out every single day and don’t have a problem finding the time to exercise, you can still do exercise snacks to grab a few extra percentage point improvements in your aerobic capacity, power output, or race performance.”

The study was done on inactive young adults, do you think that active fit healthy individual who are accumulating much more than the 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week could actually see benefits from exercise snacks like this? Running up a flight of stairs may be enough for the folks in the study to trigger adaptations but for someone who is already fit and active;y training my thought would be that they need more stimulus than a sprint up a flight of stairs to get improvements.

Regardless though it certainly can’t hurt to try, you won’t get less fit by doing them 😜

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You bring up a good point Ryan but I think it's all relative. As long as you're able to get your heart rate to the same level as the participants in the study during your exercise snack, I think one could still see improvements.

No doubt the benefits won't be as large as those in this study! Stair climbing for a few minutes per day isn't going to raise my VO2 max by almost 1 MET! But I still think there's a marginal benefit in adding some small intense training stimulus to the day.

As you said: it probably can't hurt.

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Not to be contrary to the study quoted but when you are 22 any stimulus works.

If a 22 year old untrained male did curls with 10 pounds his arms would grow.

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I'm not sure how accurate that is though Anthony, but I certainly appreciate your comment. In fact, I think the opposite is true.

Older sedentary adults would (in my humble opinion) probably see much more of a benefit from exercise snacks than a 22 y.o. would.

I think training status is more important than age in this context.

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While I still cherish my regularly scheduled intensive workout (usually 1 hour in the afternoon), I've been incorporating what you refer to as "exercise snacks" (I love that term, by the way!) into my daily routine. I've noticed that short bursts of functional fitness has led to significant gains in strength and especially endurance.

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Thank you for posting this. I aim for 25 flights a day while working along with 12,500 steps at a moderate rate.

I’m not going to win an Ultra doing this but it’s something.

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That's fantastic. "It's something" is always better than nothing!

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Lifestyle seems to be the biggest barrier to not moving enough.

I’m thankful I’ve had the time and space to structure mine to promote sufficient movement and improve my health while being an at-home dad over the last 5+ years.

While transitioning back to more working, I plan on continuing these lifestyle practices while living more of a “working” lifestyle.

For example, I’ll go outside, do rope flow, run, or climb trees for 20-30 minutes in the morning. Then, I go work for an hour or two.

That 20-30 minutes of movement outside gives me a sharp mind to work and energy for the rest of the day.

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We seem to have a very similar lifestyle Tony. I'm a "work from home" dad too and it really lets you structure the day around lots of movement. I typically can't do productive work for more than 2-3 hours at a time and that's when I like to take the dog and kiddo on a walk or do a mini strength training session.

It's obviously great for physical health but the mental benefits and clarity that a short break provides can be incredible!

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