Science Vs - Working Out From Home — in 7 Minutes? [Rebroadcast]

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Social distancing has made it harder for a lot of us to get exercise. So we’re revisiting our episode on the seven-minute workout. Can this bite-size routine really keep us fit? Back in 2018, we ask...ed exercise scientist Prof. Jeff Coombes — and Wendy gave it a go.  Check out the transcript here: https://bit.ly/2RQarYz  We also looked into the broader science of exercise in this episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3iMLOaNVAy0s6RsdecUySj  And find the original study on the seven-minute workout here: https://bit.ly/3aoe4eP  Credits: This episode was produced by Rose Rimler with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Meryl Horn and Odelia Rubin. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger and Peter Leonard. Music written by Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Recording assistance from Jack McDonnell. For this episode we also spoke to Martin Gibala, Chris Jordan, Kathryn Weston, Dan Schmidt, and others. Thank you so much for your help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 It's season three of The Joy of Why, and I still have a lot of questions. Like, what is this thing we call time? Why does altruism exist? And where is Jan Eleven? I'm here, astrophysicist and co-host, ready for anything. That's right. I'm bringing in the A-team. So brace yourselves.
Starting point is 00:00:17 Get ready to learn. I'm Jan Eleven. I'm Steve Strogatz. And this is... Quantum Magazine's podcast, The Joy of Why. New episodes drop every other Thursday, starting February 1st. What does the AI revolution mean for jobs, for getting things done? Who are the people creating this technology, and what do they think?
Starting point is 00:00:39 I'm Rana El-Khelyoubi, an AI scientist, entrepreneur, investor, and now host of the new podcast, Pioneers of AI. Think of it as your guide for all things AI, with the most human issues at the center. Join me every Wednesday for Pioneers of AI. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you tune in. Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Versus from Gimlet. A lot of us have been staying inside for weeks now and for me it's been weird at times but I'm kind of getting used to it. One thing that is tricky though, even for those who still have to go to work right now, is getting exercise. Gyms are closed and a lot of us are nervous about
Starting point is 00:01:28 going outside to work out. So I called up Rose Brimler, one of our producers, to ask her how she's handling this. Are you still going for runs? No, no, I was for like the first week or two after the quarantine, but then I stopped and. But now it's like playing a game of Frogger. And it's like extremely, it was really stressing me out. And so I just quit. How are you feeling about that? It's a total bummer because now I feel even more cooped up. And I keep saying that I'll wake up really early and I'll go like really early in the morning when no one else is out, but that I never seem to be able to make that happen. So I actually, the other day, I did wake up early to go for a run for this exact reason. And it totally backfired. I went outside
Starting point is 00:02:41 and it was this beautiful blue spring day and I started running and the birds were tweeting. And then I started to get really bad period pain in the middle of the run. And I was like, oh, no. I know. And then this was the worst part about it because I knew in the time of COVID, once people started populating the street, everyone would think that I was sick with COVID because at this point I was like keeling over. And I had to sit on the floor and it must've looked like I was
Starting point is 00:03:11 completely out of breath. I was trying really hard to indicate it's the lower region. Like I can breathe properly. How are you indicating that? I was just pressing on my ovaries as hard as possible to be like the problem is down here it's down here and then and this guy in this truck rolled down his window are you okay ma'am and I was like it's fine it's it's just period pain given all this and how hard it is to do exercise right now, we at Science Versus wanted to revisit this mini episode that we did about the seven-minute workout, which is a workout that you can do from home. And there are all these promises that people say about this workout.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Yeah, people say it can help you lose weight, that it can help you get more muscle, that it can boost your energy, and then they even say that it can help you like get more muscle, that it can boost your energy. And then they even say that it can help you live longer. And I was so skeptical about all this because this is only like a seven minute workout. People say it can do all these amazing things. It just has all the hallmarks of being an ultimate fad. But is it?
Starting point is 00:04:22 So we read the science and of course I had to try it. Yeah, it feels like just yesterday I was coaching you through the seven minute workout at the Gimlet office, back when we would go to the office and back when you and I could be in the same room together. They were crazy times. So we're going to play that episode for you just after the break. Welcome back. With a lot of us stuck at home looking for ways to do exercise, it can be hard to imagine that popping on our joggers for a little workout at home would do anything for our body. Like it doesn't feel worth it. But is that true? To help answer that question, here's our episode on the seven minute workout. Ugh. She doesn't sound like you're in the mood to work out. No, I'm not in the mood to work out.
Starting point is 00:05:24 I'm in the mood to be a whinger. There's no whinging allowed in the seven-minute workout. There's simply no time. Okay, Rose is going to walk me through the original seven-minute workout. Get your headbands out. So all you need is the floor, the wall, and a chair. Okay. The first thing you're going to do is jumping jacks.
Starting point is 00:05:46 Star jumps, as we call them in Australia. That's crazy, but okay. Star jumps, then wall sits, push-ups, sit-ups, you step up onto a chair, you do squats, tricep dip, planks, running in place with high knees, lunges, push-up with rotation, then you do side plank. Okay. Are you going to give it your best shot? I am going to give it your best shot? I am going to give it my best shot. Here's the catch. Giving the seven-minute workout your best shot means that you have to go at what's called high intensity. This is no casual jog. You've got to go hard.
Starting point is 00:06:19 And there's a handy test with a stamp of approval from the CDC that lets you know if you're going hard enough. Here's Rose again. So for high intensity, you should not be able to have, like, an easygoing conversation. You should not be able to sing. Okay. Okay, so we need to get to the point where I'm, like, huffing and puffing, not singing Journey.
Starting point is 00:06:43 Go. Star jumps. Okay. Just a lonely girl. All right, So I'm not going fast enough. Living in a lonely world. Okay. Well, could you do star jumps any faster? You look like the curtain things at a car wash. Thank you. So while I put myself through this, let's talk to an expert to find out if this seven-minute workout does anything. Hello, Jeff speaking. Hi, Jeff speaking.
Starting point is 00:07:21 Hi, Wendy. Jeff Coombs is a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia. He's been studying exercise since the 90s and has helped write a few reviews rounding up the research on short, intense workouts, like the seven-minute workout. So my first question for him is about one of the most common reasons that people do any exercise, to lose weight. And so can it help you lose weight?
Starting point is 00:07:53 Unfortunately, the answer is no. That amount of exercise is not going to burn enough calories to make a big difference. Yeah, this weight loss claim is a bit of a crock. Although a few studies have found that some people do see a little bit of weight loss on this kind of workout, exercise, just generally speaking, isn't great for losing weight. Sorry, weight is more about what you put in than what you put out. Okay, so the seven-minute workout isn't great for weight loss. But what about those other promises, that the seven-minute workout can make you fitter and healthier? Well, Geoff says yes, it actually can. Definitely the seven-minute workout is going to make you stronger,
Starting point is 00:08:36 make your bones better, make your heart function better. Really? Yes. And if you can enjoy it and you keep doing it, then it's certainly going to be effective. I was really surprised, but there are a bunch of studies that show that short, high-intensity workouts are really good for you. They can improve the health of your heart, lungs,
Starting point is 00:08:59 and even your sensitivity to insulin, which can help prevent diabetes. So the science is telling us that short, intense workouts are really good for you. And while it is very tricky to compare different kinds of workouts, Jeff reckons that you're probably better off working really hard for just seven minutes than doing something easier for 20 minutes, something like walking. Exactly. If you wanted to get the most out of your workout, then a seven minute workout is going to be better for you. But how is this possible? Like how can just seven minutes of exercise be so good for you? Well, scientists have known for a
Starting point is 00:09:41 long time that exercise trains your body to be more efficient at doing a bunch of things, like using oxygen, sending blood around the body, and regulating your blood sugar. And scientists used to think that the best way to trigger these changes was to exercise for longer. So the more exercise you do, the more benefit you get. It's only recently that we discovered that you don't have to work out for that long to get these benefits, as long as you work hard enough at high intensity. Last chance to try Journey.
Starting point is 00:10:19 Small town girl, living in her lonely world. All right, done. That's a seven-minute workout. How do you feel? Pooped. That's actually quite a good workout. Okay, but there is a little bit of fad in this seven-minute workout,
Starting point is 00:10:41 and that is this. There's nothing special about doing this exact routine or working for exactly seven minutes. Studies have looked at different high-intensity workouts for different lengths of time, and all kinds of things work. So, for example, one study found that people doing several minutes of cycling with these short bursts of pedalling as fast as they could, well, they improved about as much as a group
Starting point is 00:11:08 that cycled at a more relaxed pace for 45 minutes. A couple of minutes versus 45. Kind of amazing, right? But remember here, the key is to work hard. No singing. That's science versus the seven-minute workout. So that was our episode from over a year ago, from the before times. And these days, Rose says that it's come in really handy for her.
Starting point is 00:11:43 So when I stopped running in New York, I knew that I had this alternative that I'd already tried and actually liked. So, yeah, now I'm doing it. I'm doing it most mornings. I get up and I do the seven-minute workout. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's not like a run, but it is something.
Starting point is 00:12:03 If you want more details on the seven-minute workout, just look at the link in our show notes. And also, if you want to know more about the science of exercise, head over to our episode, Science vs. Exercise. We'll also put that in our show notes. And we'll be back on Thursday, tackling the Great Gerbil Crisis. No, we'll be back with more science on the coronavirus. This episode was produced by Rose Rimler with help from me, Wendy Zuckerman, along with Meryl Horne and Odelia Rubin. Our senior producer is Caitlin Sorey. We're edited by Blythe Terrell, fact-checking by Michelle Harris, mix and sound design by Emma Munger. Music written by Emma Munger and Bobby Lord.
Starting point is 00:12:49 Recording assistance from Jack McDonald. For this episode, we also spoke to Martin Gabala, Chris Jordan, Catherine Weston, Dan Schmidt and others. Thank you so much for your help. I'm Wendy Zuckerman. Talk to you next time.

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