Usually, experts advise you to get at least 3-4 workout sessions in a week, probably for an hour a pop. But there’s more research supporting the idea that short bursts of intense exercise can also be beneficial, specifically in warding off diabetes.
You just need to get up and move a little.
In fact, workouts that last as little as three minutes at a time can prevent diabetes by helping control blood sugar, say British researchers.
“This is such a brief amount of exercise you can do it without breaking a sweat,” said James Timmons, an exercise biologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, who led the study.
Here’s the shocking kicker: Timmons and his team showed that just seven minutes of exercise on a weekly basis helped a group of 16 men in their early 20s control insulin. After two weeks, the men had a 23 percent improvement in how effectively their body used insulin to clear glucose from the blood stream, said Timmons.
While you don’t want to stop, if you did, the positive effect appears to last up to 10 days after the last round of exercise.