The One-Minute Workout: Science Shows a Way to Get Fit That's Smarter, Faster, Shorter

by Martin Gibala

That year, we submitted a study to the Journal of Physiology in which sixteen college-age students performed six training sessions over two weeks. In each training session, half the subjects cycled continuously for 90 to 120 minutes at a moderate-intensity pace. The other eight subjects performed four to six 30-second sprints at an all-out pace, separated by 4 minutes of recovery. The endurance training group’s total time commitment was 10.5 hours over the two-week period. In contrast, the total training commitment for the sprint group was about 2.5 hours, including the recovery periods—although the total amount of hard exercise for the sprint group was just 18 minutes. Once the two weeks were up, testing revealed that the two groups had improved to a virtually identical extent in every measure we tested. Both groups improved their cycling time-trial performance by the same amount and also demonstrated remarkably similar changes in the molecular makeup of their muscles. Considering the difference in the amount of time the two groups trained, it was an incredible result. A total of just 18 minutes of very intense exercise produced the same benefits as 10.5 hours of traditional endurance training.