In 2013, Chris Jordan, MS, CSCS, NSCA-CPT, ACSM EP-C / APT, an elite exercise physiologist with experience in military training who is currently the director of exercise physiology at the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute , created a simple bodyweight exercise routine that instantly took the fitness world by storm. It was called “7 minutes of training,” and the instructional app containing variations of the routine – complete with videos of Jordan himself offering severe instructions and demos – quickly became one of the most downloaded fitness apps on the market.
The 7-minute workout preached the benefits of a type of training that was rapidly gaining in popularity at the time: high-intensity interval training or doing small series of really intense exercises divided by short periods of rest. Although the mechanics of HIIT were nothing new – elite athletes have been doing several versions of it since the 1930s – the routine promised something really incredible for busy Americans and workers everywhere: Yes, you can get in shape faster – in less than 10 minutes! – and you can do this in any basement or hotel room, using 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 American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal, and a phenomenon was born.
For anyone who has already tried the 7-minute workout and may have found it very difficult to complete, Jordan has just released a newer and “smoother” variation of it: the permanent 7-minute workout. The idea behind this new version, as Jordan explained to The New York Times, is to make the 7-minute workout more accessible to as many people as possible, including “my older brother triathlete and my 82-year-old mother”.
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In this version, as the name suggests, it eliminates all exercises that can cause tension in the person’s body, causing them to fall to the floor, including more difficult movements such as planks, push-ups and sit-ups. “Like the original workout, standing training includes cardio-fitness exercises, lower body, upper body and central muscles – in that order,” explains Times. “Each exercise lasts only 30 seconds, with only five seconds of rest between them. To get the most out of your workout, do each exercise at 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 have doubts that you can burn fat by exercising in such a short time, Jordan has a lot of science to support you. “When it comes to the immediate health benefits of this type of high-intensity exercise, it’s all about blood sugar,” explained Timothy Church, Ph.D., a professor of preventive medicine at Louisiana State University. Daily Journal. If you are skipping rope or sprinting, for example, your body starts to instantly process blood sugar, which helps with weight loss, and stress on your muscles leads to greater conditioning. The benefits simply increase from there.
“As with other forms of exercise, when muscles grow, they pull on the skeletal system, increasing bone density,” he explains. Daily Journal. “A lot of new research also shows that interval training triggers the release of macrophages and killer T cells, increasing the body’s immune function for hours after its last flexion or pullup.”
As your fitness increases, 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 exercise, as the LSU Church said Daily Journal. After all, think of all the weightlifters doing your sets and then just walk around the gym looking at your watch, their heads bobbing to the music. “Most people are really working hard for just 15 to 20 minutes anyway,” he said.
For more advice on weight loss, make sure you are aware of the workout that causes 29% more fat loss, according to Science.