Fitness
Even 30-second exercise ‘snacks’ can boost your energy and help you get fit in the new year. How to add them to your day
Maybe you’ve set a New Year’s resolution to get fitter and healthier this year. If so, you’re in good company: statistics show that improving fitness is the number one resolution. Unfortunately, the majority of people find sticking to that resolution difficult. A year on, only about 9% report they’ve stayed with a new exercise regimen for the entire 12 months.
Making exercise a consistent, regular habit is hard, especially when you’re juggling a career, family obligations, and other demands on your time. A good starting point—or simply a good way to add on to an existing exercise habit—is to integrate movement “snacks” into your routine. These short bursts of activity scattered throughout your day can make a difference in how you feel, as well as your overall health.
“Movement is good for us, even if it’s not a dedicated exercise session,” says Meghan Wieser, a doctor of physical therapy at Maryland-based Recharge Health & Fitness. “Movement snacks can be a low-barrier way to get your body moving throughout the day, and it correlates with better health markers.”
Research backs this up. A team at McMasters University in Hamilton, Ontario, tested the theory. The study looked into whether simple 20-second bursts of vigorous stair climbing, three times each day, performed three days a week, could improve cardiorespiratory fitness. After six weeks, it had, by about 5%. “The changes are modest, but not insignificant,” says co-author Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology. “By studying epidemiological data, we’ve learned that small changes can go a long way.”
While repeated exercise snacks shouldn’t replace a more regular workout routine that includes both cardiovascular and strength training, it can improve your health. It can also serve as an easy entry point to getting fitter in the new year.
How to get started
One of the best ways to incorporate movement snacks into your day is to “habit stack,” says Wieser. “In a given day, you already have habits built in, like a mid-morning coffee break,” she says. “So while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew, fit in some movement.”
Maybe you have a daily 2 p.m. zoom call with your team, for instance. Five minutes before it begins, take the chance to do a micro-session of exercise. The same with getting up from your desk to walk to the bathroom. You can also choose to Pomodoro Method your way to better health by setting a timer to remind you to move after a specific interval of time. Or if you wear a fitness tracker, set it to buzz every couple of hours as a friendly nudge to move. The point is getting intentional about movement, and stacking it on top of existing routines and habits makes it easier to remember and incorporate.
How you move and for how long can run a wide spectrum, and is dependent on your existing baseline of fitness. Someone who is fully sedentary, for instance, probably won’t start with sprinting up the stairs for 20 seconds at a time. Aim for a variety of movement that benefits both your heart and lungs, as well as your muscles.
Easy entry points can include movements like air squats, lunges, push-ups, jogging in place, doing a few sets of jumping jacks, or setting out for a vigorous walk down the hall. If you prefer more static movement, hold a wall sit for 30 seconds at a time, repeating three times,. Or get on the floor and hold a plank for a similar period of time. Try to mix it up to give your body a variety of stimuluses, and aim to move at least every two hours or so.
“No one type of exercise is better than any other, but you should aim to engage your large muscle groups to get your heart rate elevated at the same time,” says Gibala. “Complex, multi-joint functional movements, with or without equipment are good. You need to huff and puff a bit to get the benefit.”
And that’s one of the keys with shorter bursts of activity—some should be intense enough to raise your heart rate. “But it should be something you like so that you’ll stick with it,” says Gibala. “Burpees are fantastic, for example, but not everyone likes them.”
You don’t have to limit your movement snacks to the workday, or strictly with a plan in mind, either. Research shows that incorporating vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) into everyday life can be impactful as well. Even at a frequency of three times per day, lasting one or two minutes each is associated with reduced cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality. “Think about getting off a three-hour flight, where you’ve been sitting the whole time, and walking up the stairs in the airport with your suitcase in hand,” says Gibala. “Play hard with your kids for a few minutes. Parallel this with movement snacks and it can go a long way.”
All that says, your goal should still be longer, intentional exercise sessions. But as an add on—or if time for an exercise snack is all you’ve got—you can improve your health. “Consider snacks a supplement,” says Wieser. “It’s a little nibble throughout your day that feeds your body.”
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
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Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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