Does a 7-minute workout actually work?

You know the feeling. A case of being super busy, barely any time in the morning to have a calm breakfast, chaos at work AND in your head, and meanwhile you really want to exercise somewhere, but when you get home you’re tired and where on earth you find the motivation to go to the gym is The Big Question. The solution: a mini-workout next to your bed. Quick quick, a few minutes and done. Better than nothing, right?

Is that really the case? Are those few minutes of movement worth it? Is a short workout better than no workout? I looked it up for us and came to the following conclusions....

1. People who do a quick 7-minute workout in the morning tend to eat healthier for the rest of the day because they feel sporty from their active morning minutes. Sounds logical to me.

2. It seems that after just a four-minute workout, you already make different choices regarding food throughout the day. Improved mental focus is noticeable after ten minutes of intense exercises.

3. By doing those mini-workouts in the morning in combination with watching your diet, you can absolutely lose weight, but it’s not really ideal for achieving specific goals (like rounder buttocks or a flatter stomach). Short, quick workouts are ideal if you’re traveling, for example, or want more focus throughout the day.

4. It also depends on your goal. Do you want to lose ten kilos? Then your diet is ten times more important than your exercise. Don’t need to lose weight but want a six-pack? Then short workouts are good options on days when you want to focus on cardio but also want to add a quick muscle pump routine to your day. Want to build serious muscle? You simply won’t achieve that with ten minutes of work per day. And if you want to use short workouts, I would look very specifically at isolation exercises where you really train that specific muscle group you want to grow.

Hmmm. Despite what the big fitness apps want you to believe, I think there’s no shortcut to success. Quick workouts CAN be a great tool to use on the way to success, but they shouldn’t be your only option if you want to achieve a specific goal.

So. And now thirty burpees.