Boost Your Health with ‘Exercise Snacks’: Experts’ Top Tips

On Mar 18, 2025

Unearthing the Health Benefits of Exercise Snacking

If you’ve ever wondered how snacking could benefit your health, consider exercise snacking. It’s not about munching on cookies or potato chips, rather, it’s about engaging in brief bursts of physical activity that can significantly enhance your health and fitness levels.

Exercise snacks are short bouts of physical activity, spanning from 30 seconds up to 10 minutes. They can be as simple as climbing stairs, walking, performing squats, or even dancing. Coined back in 2007 by cardiologist Dr. Howard Hartley, these mini workouts have gained recognition and validation through numerous studies over the years.

Increasing Fitness Levels with Exercise Snacks

Unleashing your potential with exercise snacking involves performing 15- to 30-second bouts of activities multiple times a day. According to a recent study published in the Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews journal, inactive adults who incorporated exercise snacks into their regimen three times daily experienced improved cardiorespiratory fitness and exercise performance.

The study focused on stair-climbing and cycling as exercise snacks, demonstrating their efficacy in boosting physical fitness.

Exercise Snacks and Cancer Reduction

Exercise snacking can also play a pivotal role in reducing cancer incidence. Research involving 22,398 participants revealed that adults who were previously inactive experienced a 17% to 18% reduction in cancer incidence after incorporating just 3.4 to 3.6 minutes of vigorous physical activity into their daily routines. This activity was performed in intervals lasting less than one or two minutes. An increase to 4.5 minutes of vigorous, intermittent physical activity each day corresponded with a 31% to 32% decrease in cancer incidence, according to the study published in JAMA Oncology.

Boosting Brain Health with Exercise Snacks

Apart from physical health, exercise snacks have been shown to promote brain health as well. Engaging in even a small amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily or adding it to your current exercise schedule reduces the risk of dementia, as shown by a study in JAMDA: The Journal of the Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association.

Those who had no prior engagement with moderate to vigorous exercise saw the most significant benefit. According to Michael Betts, a personal trainer and director at TrainFitness, “Doing anything is better than doing nothing. As long as you’re moving some of the time, putting a little stress on your body, it will adapt and improve.”

Implementing Exercise Snacks into Your Daily Routine

Exercise snacks are not just about improving physical fitness; they’re also about making small, manageable changes to your daily routine. For instance, after brushing your teeth in the morning, you could perform some jumping jacks or lunges. According to Dr. Supatra Tovar, a holistic health specialist, “When you incorporate exercise snacks as a habit, they start to become ingrained, and you’ll begin to see their lifelong benefits.”

Walking is one of the easiest exercise snacks to incorporate into your routine. This simple act can transform into a habit that encourages a more active lifestyle. For a more challenging workout, vary the intensity of your walk by alternating between fast and slow intervals.

“It pushes your body a little more each time,” says Betts, reinforcing that your body adapts and improves with each challenge.

Maximizing Fitness with Exercise Snacks

Exercise snacks don’t have to be confined to a specific activity; even everyday tasks can count. Cleaning your house, playing with your kids, and even fidgeting are all forms of nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which refers to energy expended from physical activities that aren’t structured exercise. Learn more about NEAT here.

By incorporating NEAT into your daily routine, you can burn up to 2,000 extra calories per day. So, remember to keep moving as much as possible. As Michael Betts puts it, “Doing these little exercise snacks reminds your body that it does need to work to maintain and improve its overall function.”