Sometimes I like to sleep in. Correction – Sometimes I like to set my alarm for 6:30 and hit snooze every 10 minutes until 8. And since I’m a morning-workout person, this tends to cramp my exercise style. But, a new study has opened my eyes to mini morning workouts. It claims that just 10 minutes of brisk exercise (I’m thinking Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred or maybe a little Sweatin' to the Oldies!) triggers a metabolic change in your body lasts at least an hour.

Rich and I, we go way back. I like to call him Slimmons.

I know “metabolic change” sounds a bit coded, but I think it’s a good thing.

Researchers put 70 healthy people on treadmills and found a bunch of their “metabolites” changed during the workout. Some of the metabolites that revved up process fat and some stress-causing metabolites decreased with exercise.

Of course thinner people had greater hikes in a metabolite that's involved in blood-sugar control.* And people who were more fit burned more fat than the less fit.**

"We have a chemical snapshot of what the more fit person looks like. Now we have to see if making someone's metabolism look like that snapshot, whether or not that's going to improve their performance," said Dr. Robert Gerszten of Massachusetts General Hospital.

So, I guess this doesn’t mean we should shrink our hour at the gym to just 10 minutes, but if you’ve got a dime of time to spare, hit up that new workout video, or go for a quick jog.

What’s your favorite mini workout? I’m a fan of the jump rope! Doesn’t take up a lot of space and definitely gets my heart pumping.


Also- I forgot to remind y’all to send me your Weigh In weight loss updates yesterday, so send them along! We’ve got less than 2 weeks before the beginning of summer and the end of our contest. If you haven’t been so successful, don’t give up now! You’ve got 2 weeks to jumpstart your weight loss!


*Damn skinny people.
**Damn fit people.

Labels: 10-minute workout, Jillian Michaels, weigh in

This entry was posted by kate, on Thursday, June 10, 2010. You can leave your response .