So let's just talk a little bit about exercise snacks, which is a type of high-intensity interval training workout. It involves doing something at vigorous intensity, a vigorous intensity heart rate for 1 to 2 minutes. And they're often called exercise snacks because you can just do them whenever throughout the day. And I think this is very relevant because I just came across a study a couple of weeks ago that showed 10 bodyweight squats— Okay, 10 for every 45 minutes— was more powerful at improving glucose homeostasis than a 30-minute walk. So I feel like that is— it kind of puts it in context. Because how easy is it to get up and do 10 bodyweight squats every 45 minutes? I mean, it doesn't get easier than that.

And there's also a reason to strategically time these exercise snacks either 30 minutes to an hour before a meal or 30 minutes to an hour after a meal. So the timing of these exercise snacks has been shown in several studies in people with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance to really improve their glucose regulation after a meal. So their postprandial glucose regulation, and their glucose disposal was improved. Again, because getting that high-intensity exercise where you're generating some lactate, it's increasing GLUT4 transporters at the muscle. And that is then causing glucose to come into the muscle. It's lowering the burden of your pancreas to have to produce insulin. And it's improving glucose homeostasis.

So exercise snacks around meals is an easy way to improve postprandial glucose regulation and glucose homeostasis. It's obviously very relevant for people with type 2 diabetes, but also, I think, for everyone. Exercise snacks has also been associated with a decrease in all-cause mortality. So there have been very large studies out of the UK Biobank data where people are wearing accelerometers. And they're part of the vigorous intensity— sorry, vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity studies that have been done, VILPA, they’re called. And what those studies have identified is that people that do 1 to 2 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise— and these are things like just sprinting up the stairs rather than taking the escalator or walking up the stairs.

And they do this, this like a 1 to 2 minute high-intensity burst. And they do this 3 times a day. That's associated with a 50% reduction in cardiovascular-related mortality, 50% reduction. It's also associated with a 40% reduction in cancer-related mortality and all-cause mortality. So cancer, cardiovascular disease, these are all diseases that are associated with metabolic dysregulation. So implementing exercise snacks, I think, is one of the easiest ways to get a little bit of exercise, get your heart rate up, get that lactate generated, increase your glucose transporters, but also just improve your mood, to break up your sedentary time. So sitting at your desk for a couple of hours is sedentary. And being sedentary is an independent risk factor for certain diseases like cancer.

So I mean, we've all been sitting here for, what, an hour at least? I say we get up and we do a minute of bodyweight squats. Bodyweight squats? Yes. All right. Ready? Okay, I'm going to get this timer going. We're going to do a whole minute. I'm saving you the high knees. All right, here we go. So we're going to do bodyweight squats. We're going to try to get the heart rate up. And we're going to do it for 1 minute. Try to go low if you can. You wanna feel the burn in your quads. I'll go sideways here. Keep going. We're not even at 30 seconds yet. Okay. We're halfway. Are you guys getting your heart rate up? Are you feeling it? Whoo! 15 seconds left. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 2. Whoo! All right. So a little out of breath, feeling good. That increased the blood flow to the brain. But more importantly, GLUT4 transporters.