seven minute exercise.

I’ve been questioned about this by a few people so I thought I would dedicate an entry to it.

On the face of it, this seems to be the latest exercise fad and I believe that it is. It’s advertised as being as effective as a long run which sounded too good to be true. Haven’t we all wanted an exercise that does it all with little output? So I did some research into it. The interesting thing that I got from this, after reading various articles, both for and against, I decided that for this exercise routine to be effective it needs to be done three times in succession.

However, the advertising of this amazing seven minute exercise is fab, in my opinion, since it has the potential to encourage people to exercise who may, otherwise, not do it.

The exercise consists of 12 different exercises using body weight as resistance. All that’s needed is a wall (i use my front door) and a chair. I also use a yoga mat as we have laminate floor and I don’t want the chair to slip.

The exercise routine is an all body workout, working on arms, shoulders, legs, bum and core. You are supposed to be continuously working at 8/10, 10 being the point at which you can no longer keep going and each exercise is done for 30 seconds with a ten second break between each one.

The main reason for the app is to negate the necessity for any thinking and multi tasking! Quite seriously! It doesn’t sing, it doesn’t dance. It doesn’t do the exercise for you nor bring you a drink when you’re done. All it does is tell you which exercise you need to do next, count you down to the start of that exercise and then count you down to the end. During the ten second break it tells you what the next exercise it. Therefore none of my exercise time is taken up with trying to figure out which exercise to do next, working out how long I’ve done each one for and the breaks too.

Now, why would someone who exercises as much as I do want to do this? Well, since I’m currently cycling I need to be careful of my legs and knees. You see, cycling uses mainly the outer muscle in the thigh so that grows and pulls at the knee cap whilst the inner muscles remain little weaklings. Therefore cyclists need to do leg exercises so the muscles stay pretty even.

On top of that, my abs are not so much steel and more marshmallow!

So – if a short, sharp shock appeals I’d say go for it!