What are exercise snacks? Why you should add these to your routine

If the idea of long workouts seems intimidating or impossible to fit into your busy schedule, try increasing your daily movement with exercise snacks. Based on the concept of “snacking,” exercise snacks encourage physical activity in shorter, higher intensity workouts that typically last about a minute. ¹ Exercise snacking has been shown to benefit overall health and wellness.  

What are exercise snacks? 

Exercise snacks are short bouts of vigorous physical activity, typically lasting about a minute or less, that are performed periodically throughout the day. ¹ These “snacks” are a feasible and time-efficient way to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and reduce the negative impact of sedentary behaviour on cardiometabolic health. ¹ The goal is to break up sedentary time and get your heart pumping and muscles working, which elicits some of the beneficial effects of exercise on your metabolism.  

Doing these exercise snacks from time to time during the day can help your glucose control, improve heart health, and increase your energy levels. ^1,2 

How are exercise snacks different from other forms of exercise? 

The main difference between exercise snacks and other exercise is not the movement itself — it’s the amount of time you engage in them and the intensity in which you do them. 

Traditional exercise may be thought of as something like a 15-minute jog or 20 minutes of continuous movement that is done at a consistent effort or potentially bouts of higher effort intermixed with bouts of lower effort. In contrast, an exercise snack typically lasts less than a minute to a max of just a few minutes and is performed at a higher intensity. ¹

Besides the length and intensity of each exercise snack, another difference between exercise snacks and regular exercise is the overall time frame exercise snacks are completed in. Exercise snacks are not consecutive exercises. Rather than working out for a full 20-30 minutes, exercise snacks allow you to break up your day with a few separate bursts of movement that can be spaced out hours apart from each other. Exercise snacks may also be referred to as “intermittent physical activity.” 

What are the health benefits of exercise snacks? 

Incorporating exercise snacks into your routine may offer some health benefits, including: 
 
Improving heart health and disease risk: As few as two or three short bouts of just 3–4 minutes of vigorous movement per day, such as very fast walking or stair climbing was associated with substantially lower all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality risk. ^3,4

Glucose control: Evidence suggests that a high volume of uninterrupted sedentary time is an independent risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes. ⁵ Exercise snacks are useful in reducing disease risk because they can lower glucose after meals by shuttling glucose into muscles to be metabolized for energy. Movements that target the legs and lower body seem to be the most effective as these are typically the largest muscles in the body. Think: brisk walking, stair climbing, air squats.   

Improved energy levels, mood, and cognitive performance: A 2016 study in 30 sedentary individuals found that exercise snacks improved both mood and energy levels. They also found a slight decrease in appetite before lunch when compared with those that were instructed to sit all day. ² Additionally, a small study found that exercise snacks, done by taking the stairs vs. the elevator, improved divergent (aka creative) thinking by 61% compared with those who just took the elevator. ⁷ 

Maintaining muscle mass: A 2022 study found that exercise snacks performed after meals helped maintain muscle mass and quality (how dense, strong, and efficient your muscles are). The research found that just 2 minutes of walking or bodyweight sit-to-stand squats allowed the body to use more amino acids from meals to build muscle proteins. ⁸  

How can I incorporate exercise snacks into my routine? 

It’s useful to break up long periods of sitting with short bouts of movement. Take a short brisk walk, or do a few rounds of resistance exercises like squats, knee raises, or calf raises. This can help your glucose levels and prevent the damage that sitting all day can do. ^3,4,6

Try this:  

• Set your alarm for each hour and get moving for a minute. Do jumping jacks, burpees, lunges, or anything that gets your body moving. 
• When watching TV, do a few jumping jacks during commercial breaks.  
• Waiting for the kettle to boil? Dance around to your favourite tune or do a few push-ups.  
• Fit in some squats or lunges while brushing your teeth. 
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator. 

A final note from Lingo 

Exercise snacks are short, intense sessions of movement lasting from less than a minute to just a few minutes, done throughout the day. Some ways to incorporate exercise snacking include walking, climbing stairs, or performing bodyweight movements like squats, lunges, and push-ups, spread out throughout the day.  

Exercise snacking has been shown to improve long-term health risk, glucose control, mood and energy levels, cognitive performance and help to maintain muscle mass. Using a continuous glucose monitor like Lingo can help you understand how incorporating exercise snacks into your daily routine can help limit glucose spikes and improve your metabolic health. ⁹   

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