14/01/2026
Getting back into exercise after Christmas has felt like a slog to me. That snuggly blanket has been just a bit too inviting (!) & I am normally pretty motivated.
This month's Deep Dive was selected with this in mind. How do we overcome those internal barriers like motivation to get on track with sustainable behavioural change?
Exercise snacking has become more popular in rehab over recent years. It means spreading brief bouts of exercise through the day, as opposed to allocating larger blocks of time to get things done. It is believed that exercise snacking overcomes barriers like a perceived lack of time or motivation, I wanted to explore this further.
This article was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, part of the BMJ publishing group. This research team pulled together RCTs exploring the effect of exercise snacks on fitness and cardio metabolic health in physically inactive individuals: into a systematic review.
From 6394 records screened, they included 11 studies in their analysis- with a total of 414 participants across the studies. Age range 15-90. 4 studies focused on older adults. Investigations took place in Australia, Canada, China and the UK, with intervention periods between 4 and 12 weeks. Exercise protocols varied in frequency, intensity, time, type and density- between 3 &7 days/week, and between 2 & 10 bouts per day. Intensity varied between moderate and near max exertion, with time per bout from 14-20 sec to 5 mins.
Their findings indicated that exercise snacks result in statistically significant improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness in physically inactive adults (moderate certainty of evidence) and muscular endurance in adults around 70-75 years old, (but with low certainty). Adherence rates were high (82.8%) which means promising for real-world unsupervised exercise. This matches my clinical experience too.
With me as a guinea pig, I trialled my own little exercise snacks this week. You know what- the 10 resented mins of running & weights spread through the day on Monday, has grown to 30 mins today! If this resonates with you- have a little exercise snack today, whatever it may be. Every journey begins with a first step 👣.
