When it comes to planning your health, people often schedule food snacks during their day – either in the morning or afternoon – to supplement their meals. These are healthy ways to incorporate more fruits and veggies into your overall nutrition plan. Sometimes a snack can get you through a long afternoon at work or those in-between mealtimes when you get a craving. A welcome break in the day to nourish your body.
Incorporate Exercise Into Your Day
The same concept can be applied to exercise – take an exercise snack. Exercise doesn’t have to be limited to a particular workout for a particular day. A recent study showed that brief exercise “snacks” – or isolated bouts of brief vigorous exercise performed during the day – are a good way to improve cardiometabolic health. What does this mean and how can you do it?
Take an Exercise “Snack”
An “exercise snack” is a great way to get up and moving if you are sedentary at home or work, have a hard time getting your workout in, or need more energy. Just like a food snack, an exercise snack can get you through a long afternoon at work or help you when you get a craving. A welcome break in the day to nourish your body. Exercise snacks can help reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease and improve your cardiorespiratory fitness. An exercise snack is one minute (60 seconds) of movement but can be up to 10 minutes. It can be done in your home or office without any equipment. Here are some examples of an exercise snack:
- One minute of continuous movement – jump rope; jumping jacks; high knees – any movement that you can sustain for one minute.
- Walking upstairs.
- Walking around your house or office building.
- Walking to your car and back at the office.
Get Your Body Moving
The goal of exercise snacks is to get you moving, break up long periods of sitting and get your heart pumping. Exercise snacks can help you if you are struggling to get in a workout, or don’t have access to a gym. Try it and see how you feel!
Georgia Heart Institute Prevention Center
As the leading heart and vascular program that’s focused on heart health for generations, Georgia Heart Institute has created an innovative center focused solely on patient education, healthy lifestyle behaviors, advanced screening services, and support resources – spanning all types and levels of heart disease.
The Prevention Center brings together expertise from non-invasive cardiology, culinary medicine, wellness coaching, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and more to deliver a holistic and comprehensive experience. This highly-trained team of preventative experts helps patients better understand their heart health, while also providing the expert guidance, advanced diagnostic testing and ongoing care needed to achieve and maintain long-term cardiac wellness.