Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursday: "Micro Workouts"

I recently saw Ben Greenfield share something about "micro workouts," and I was intrigued. I met Greenfield when we were both sent to Israel to race the Israman Half Iron Triathlon 5 years ago. I subscribe little to what Greenfield says as he comes across often as a "snake oil salesman," but this was interesting.

He wrote a little about these 10 minute session he sometimes does during each hour of the day:

For example, two days ago, I wandered out to the garage at the top of every hour for one Tabata set on the air assault bike followed by 30 bodyweight squats, 20 pushups, 10 pull-ups. By repeating this each hour during my day (total of 10 hours), I had done 40 minutes of HIIT, 300 squats, 200 pushups and 100 pull-ups by the end of the day!

This style of working out also has a massive appetite suppressing effect, eliminates mindless eating, and keeps the metabolism screaming high the entire day. Another favorite microworkout I like is to, again at the top of each hour, go out to my home gym and do 30 burpees, then one single set of 10 hex bar deadlifts as heavy as I can handle. Again, you can do the math: by the end of the day I’ve amassed 300 burpees and 100 heavy deadlifts!

Yesterday I dug a little more into this idea of micro workouts, and I found what Mark Sisson had to say about it (I was pointed there by Greenfield's post). Sisson is a former elite marathoner, and now he writes all about fitness. He focuses on getting the most out of workouts, so the intensity of short workouts like this would be up his alley. (Sidenote: love his idea of "LGN," or that we all want to "look good naked." #Truth.) Sisson says these micro workouts have an "incredible cumulative training effect."

In essence, you are banking a lot of strength/power/explosiveness “mileage” without disturbing the necessary stress/rest balance of your official workout schedule or prompting the stress hormone production and cellular depletion that occurs from an extreme weekend warrior-type session. That is, a set of pull-ups, or even three sets over the course of 12 hours on a typical day, is not going to mess up the next day’s CrossFit session or even an ambitious arms and chest session. Rather, these micro sessions will raise the baseline from which you launch you ambitious full-scale workouts.

He makes a point to note just HOW much weight you're lifting over the course of a day if you do a workout like this throughout 12 hours. (That's what Greenfield mentioned in his quote at the top as well.)

Sisson's second big point is that a workout like this will "combat the extreme health hazard of prolonged periods of stillness that characterize hyperconnected modern life." This is a well-known issue that's been creeping into our lives.

Strange as it may seem, it’s now becoming clear that increasing all forms of general everyday movement is a greater health priority than conducting ambitious workouts. Microworkouts, along with continued devotion to JFW (Just F—ing Walk) takes on increasing importance as daily life gets more effortless. Even if you’re a devoted gym rat, those few hours a week when you’re pushing weight around isn’t enough to combat a lifestyle of commuting, office work, and digital entertainment leisure time.

So, how do we do this? He says "look for opportunities over the course of every day to put your body under some kind of brief resistance load." Even 1 minute workouts interspersed throughout the day will have an incredible cumulative effect he claims.

A PRO and a CON:

Well, the CON first... Sisson notes that you might have to warm up a bit first, depending on what you're about to do for 1-5 minutes. You might have to start with a few minutes of walking, or some dynamic stretches. So this idea of micro workouts might take a bit more time than "only" 1-5 minutes each hour. (Greenfield noted his took 10 minutes. And FAR FROM EVERYONE can devote 10 minutes of EACH hour to a mini-workout.) I know warming up has played a bigger role in my training over the years. 10-12 years ago, if I were heading out on a 5 mile tempo run, I'd walk down my steps and start running 5 hard miles. (It's no wonder I wound up injured going into my marathon in 2008.) Today, a 5 mile tempo run would be 8 total miles minimum (having a good warm up and short cool down as well, also with at least 15 minutes to stretch and foam roll afterwards).

But another PRO of doing this is that...

[...] you’ll discover that you’re much more adaptable to brief explosive efforts without a long warm-up. You’ll be able to pop up from your work desk to hustle down a flight of stairs at work without hearing the creaks and cracks that are so familiar, especially to aging jocks.

"Aging jocks?" I feel personally attacked.

Sisson goes on to point out studies that show that any short stimulation of the aerobic system helps improve overall cardiovascular health and fitness.

His final words:

If you so much as jump up from your desk, scramble down the stairs and out to your vehicle, then return with a few floors of ascent and back to your desk—total time five minutes and eight seconds. You’ll be turbocharging fat burning, increasing oxygen delivery and blood circulation to the brain, and flooding the bloodstream with neurotransmitters that elevate mood and improve cognitive focus. Similarly, anytime you haul off a set of pushups or squats, you’re making a meaningful contribution to your fitness and longevity.

This idea makes me want to get a pull-up bar mounted in my garage again. (I had one in our old garage before we tore it down 6 years ago.) I'm too injured right now for body weight squats as I'm only doing non-weight bearing leg exercises, so I can't incorporate those right now. But I'd be interested in trying a (totally made up) workout of 20-30 push-ups and 50-100 sit-ups every hour for days I'm home. I have to get a few pieces framed up for exhibitions here shortly, so maybe the day I spend working on that, I can try some micro workouts throughout the day.

For more "Thirsty Thursday" posts that highlight workouts, body science, and all kinds of interesting information, CLICK HERE. As always, back with some "Friday Funnies" tomorrow.