The best way to keep fit for good health is often debated – and now British researchers say just 20 seconds a day may make a massive difference.
The time needs to be devoted to sprinting on a cycle machine three times a week, the researchers at Bath University, Somerset, UK, say.
The researchers say they have shown that these occasional sprints can help tackle type 2 diabetes and reduce levels of insulin in the blood.
The researchers said they aimed to make exercise sessions "easy and short".
The idea was tested on volunteers. Reporting in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, the researchers say the volunteers experienced a 28 per cent improvement in their handling of insulin after six weeks of the treatment.
The treatment involved some 20 seconds of "very intense" sprint training on a cycle machine. In total the volunteers took ten minutes warming up and cooling down on the machines.
Researcher Dr Niels Vollaard said: "Our muscles have sugar stores, called glycogen, for use during exercise. To restock these after exercise the muscle needs to take up sugar from the blood.
"In inactive people there is less need for the muscles to do this, which can lead to poor sensitivity to insulin, high blood sugar levels, and eventually type 2 diabetes.
"We already knew that very intense sprint training can improve insulin sensitivity but we wanted to see if the exercise sessions could be made easier and shorter."
He added: "This is completely new. No one has ever found a programme this easy and short to provide health benefits. At the moment it has only been done in lab conditions but it would be easy to create a bike that does this in a gym setting.
"It could even be done in the workplace."
Dr Vollaard said the short sprints would be unlikely to lead to weight loss – but would help with general fitness.
European Journal of Applied Physiology December 2011
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