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Exercise Is Medicine

3 Doctor-Designed Workouts Anyone Can Do

Effective exercise ‘prescriptions’ that take 20 minutes or less

Elemental
Published in
6 min readJan 8, 2020

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This story is part of Exercise Is Medicine, a special report from Elemental that covers the incredible healing benefits of exercise, why doctors are prescribing workouts, the science of exercise for depression, and expert-designed exercises anyone can do.

PPhysical activity can help you think more clearly, sleep better, battle depression and generally live longer and healthier, a slew of studies show. U.S. federal guidelines call for at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week, which equates to 30 minutes a day over five days, to help achieve and maintain good health. This can be achieved by simply walking.

Meanwhile, a growing body of research finds surprising benefits of incredibly brief bouts of intense activity. The type of exercise is not what’s most important, says Martin Gibala, a professor in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and a leading researcher on the health benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and its less time-consuming cousin, sprint-interval training (SIT). What matters is the brief, all-out effort which Gibala’s research has shown benefits people just starting an exercise…

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Elemental

Editor of Wise & Well on Medium + the Writer's Guide at writersguide.substack.com. Author of Make Sleep Your Superpower: amazon.com/dp/B0BJBYFQCB