2013, Chris Jordan, MS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, ACSM EP-C / APT, an elite exercise physiologist with experience in training armed forces who is currently Head of Exercise Physiology at Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, created a simple exercise routine for body weight that immediately took the exercise world by storm. It was called “7-minute workout” and instruction app contains variations of the routine – complete with videos of Jordan himself offering acts instruction and demonstration – quickly became one of the most downloaded fitness apps on the market.
The 7-minute training preached the benefits of a type of training that quickly became popular over time: high-intensity interval training or doing short bursts of really intense training divided into short rest periods. Although the mechanics of HIIT were actually nothing new – elite athletes have done several versions of it since the 1930s – the routine promised something really incredible for busy, working Americans everywhere: Yes, you can get faster – in less than ten minutes! —And you can do it in any basement or hotel room, with only your body weight, a wall and maybe a chair. Jordan published the compelling results of his research on the benefits of 7-minute training at the American College of Sports Medicine Health and fitness diaryand a phenomenon was born.
For anyone who has tried the 7-minute workout and may have had it too hard to complete, Jordan released a newer and “milder” variant of it earlier this year: The Standing 7-Minute Workout. The idea behind this new version, which Jordan explained The New York Times, is to make 7-minute workouts more accessible to as many people as possible, including “my older brother in the triathlete and my 82-year-old mother.”
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In this version, as the name suggests, he eliminates all exercises that can cause strain on the person’s body by letting them drop to the floor, including heavier movements such as planks, pushups and crunches. “Like the original workout, the standing workout includes cardio, lower body, upper body and core muscles – in that order,” he explains. Times. “Each exercise lasts only 30 seconds with only five seconds of rest in between. To get the most out of your workout, do each exercise at a relatively high intensity – about 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.”
You can see a video of Jordan explaining and demonstrating the training here.
If you doubt that you can burn fat by exercising in such a short time, Jordan has plenty of science to back him up. “When it comes to the immediate health benefits of this type of high-intensity exercise, it’s about blood sugar,” Timothy Church, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at Louisiana State University, told Men’s Journal. For example, if you jump rope or run sprints, your body will immediately process your blood sugar, which helps with weight loss, and the stress on your muscles leads to greater conditioning. The benefits are simply combined from there.
“As with other forms of exercise, as your muscles grow, they pull on your skeleton, increasing your bone density,” he explains. Men’s Journal. “Many new studies also show that interval training triggers the release of macrophages and killer T cells, increasing your body’s immune function for hours after your last pushup or pullup.”
As your fitness grows, know that you can perform these exercises for periods longer than 7 minutes – but we are not talking about hours. Ten, 15 or 20 minutes is a lot of training, as LSU’s church said Men’s Journal. After all, you can think of all the weightlifters doing their apparatus and then just walking around the gym and staring at the clock, with their heads rocking to music. “Most people do really hard work in just 15 to 20 minutes anyway,” he said.
For better weight loss advice, make sure you are aware of the only workout that drives 29 percent more fat loss, according to science.
