How Exercise Snacks Support Metabolic Health

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: There are studies on these sorts of exercise snacks. Ten minutes is longer than an exercise snack, but there are studies where people wear devices that track their heart rate. There are large studies on what is called vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.

Most people are taking advantage of everyday life. They have stairs on the way to work, so they sprint up them instead of walking. They get their heart rate up to around 75 or 80 percent of maximum and make it intense. People who do this for anywhere from one to three minutes a day have around 50 percent lower cancer-related and cardiovascular-related mortality. This was even true for people who identified themselves as non-exercisers. These people are not going to the gym or playing tennis. They don't have leisure-time physical activity.

My point is that even short bursts of vigorous intensity, consistently done a little bit every day, add up. There are additive effects, and they make a difference. I think that's very encouraging because some people think they have to go work out for 30 minutes and need that motivation. Some people don't have that motivation. It's much easier to get up and do something for two minutes. It's hard, but you can do it at your house.

Chris Williamson: Apart from running up and down the stairs, what are some other ways people can incorporate exercise snacks to take advantage of this?

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Bodyweight squats are a great one. You do your squats for a minute, rest for around 15 seconds, and then do another minute. Those are hard and get your heart rate up. You can do that for around three minutes. It's a really good one, and you're going to be sore if you're not used to it.

Then there are high knees. You could do chair squats or burpees. With burpees, you do the plank movement and then come up and jump. Those are all great examples of easy ways to do exercise snacks, even at your desk. Breaking up your workday with those movements makes a difference to your mood and cognition. You're immediately getting blood flow to your brain.

Chris Williamson: You were telling me about the need for people to break up their sedentary time and that there are some very specific risks people can encounter if they're too sedentary for too long, too frequently. What's happening there?

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: It's interesting. I never identified myself as sedentary because I've always done something like running, jumping rope, or going to the gym where I'm physically active. I thought I was in the physically active group and not sedentary. It turns out that what we've been doing for the past couple of hours, sitting here, is sedentary.

Even if you go to the gym or run, when you sit at your desk for hours, you are sedentary. Being sedentary is itself an independent risk factor for diseases such as cancer. Do I think a marathon runner who also has a desk job and sits for eight hours is going to develop cancer? Probably not, because they're putting in a lot of effort and are physically active.

But I'm not an athlete. I am a committed exerciser. I'm putting in anywhere between two and five hours of exercise a week, depending on the week. I also spend a lot of time sitting. To me, it was important that this is an independent risk factor for breast cancer. A woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer is one in eight, which is incredibly high. There are lifestyle factors that can increase or decrease that risk, and sedentary behavior is an independent risk factor.

It's really easy, so I've started incorporating exercise snacks. I'll get up and do some bodyweight squats. That's my go-to. I also like burpees and high knees.

Chris Williamson: Every hour?

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I think every couple of hours. I've also started timing them around my meals. That's another thing. I think being aware of the postprandial glucose response, how it affects my cognitive function and mood, and knowing that it's healthier makes it easy. Just do two or three minutes.

Chris Williamson: Before food?

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: You can do it before or after food. Both.

Chris Williamson: Trying to do burpees after food might be difficult.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: You can do it up to about an hour after.

Chris Williamson: Right. One thing Dr. Stu McGill, a leading back-pain specialist, taught me a long time ago, and that Mark Bell also popularized, is a 10- or 15-minute walk after eating because of insulin sensitivity and helping to readjust blood glucose. The muscles of the hips and arms cross the stomach, so it may help with digestion as well. If you've had a really big meal and all you want to do is lie down, one of the best things you can do to feel better is perhaps go for a walk.

What would you say here? We have the post-meal walking crowd and the post-meal burpees crowd. Is there something you're missing from one of those, or are you happy with either?

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I don't know about the idea that arm movement aids digestion. I do know that the more vigorous intensity, when you start to feel that burn and make lactate, increases glucose transporters. Lactate is what signals them. When I'm thinking about glucose and improving blood glucose levels, vigorous is better.

Chris Williamson: They're actually chasing that burn.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: They're chasing the burn. Studies have compared walkers with interval walkers. These are people who walk continuously versus those who pick up the pace, walk slower, and pick up the pace again. They're not running, but they're interval walking. Interval walking has been shown to improve a variety of metabolic parameters more than regular walking.

Again, it makes sense. When you're picking up the pace, you're working harder and making lactate. That's one of the big signals for these glucose transporters to come up to the surface of the muscle and let glucose in. From a mechanistic understanding, and from data comparing walking with interval walking, interval walking is better. When you can pick up the pace and go a little more intensely, it's...