When it comes to fitness and health, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman has been a regular in providing the correct and relevant information. The knowledge he imparts and the type of exercise routine he suggests helps one to improve their health immensely. The neuroscientist once discussed the importance of “Science-Supported Tools to Accelerate Your Fitness Goals” on his podcast, Huberman Labs.
While sharing information on various tools in the podcast, he touched upon an interesting topic, ‘Exercise Snacks for Cardiovascular & Muscular Endurance’. Dr. Andy Galpin suggested this tool to him. The tool is a way to either enhance or maintain your fitness based on how your core or foundational fitness program is going.
If someone has no time to follow their basic exercise routines due to commitments like work, family, etc., exercise snacks are a terrific way to maintain fitness. According to Dr. Galpin, exercise snacks fall into two categories. The first category of exercise snacks is to improve or maintain your cardiovascular fitness, and the second relates to muscular endurance.
Under the first category of improving cardiovascular fitness, your ability to run, cycle, or row some distance of 12 minutes or longer is good. As the name suggests, these exercise snacks are brief. And one doesn’t have to do them for very long.
“What you’re are going to do is either maintain or enhance the type of endurance that allows you to continue in an activity for 12 minutes or longer.”
On the other hand, muscular endurance is an integral aspect of fitness. Though people train for muscular endurance, it is something that most people are not doing enough training for. It checks your ability and endurance, for example, by doing a wall set, push-ups, or planks in a single session for a minute or two, but not 12 minutes.
“Muscular endurance translates to a number of other aspects of fitness, and it’s something that we should all be working on.”
Furthermore, Huberman suggests a perfect example of an exercise for enhancing your long-duration endurance, which is cardiovascular fitness. A good example is to suddenly stand up from your desk or anywhere you’re sitting and do 100 jumping jacks. You may end up doing this exercise for 90 seconds.
Those who feel it consumes their time can do 25 to 50 jumping jacks in a session. What Huberman is trying to prove here is that it helps you move your muscles and improve your cardiovascular health. People who find jumping jacks difficult can also find a stairwell. Go up as fast as you can, safely, for 20 to 30 seconds, or do any exercise of your choice.
“Even if you’re very fit, if you’re doing these fast enough and you’re doing them with proper form, it’s going to get your heart rate up.”
The purpose of the exercise snacks developed by Galpin is to get your heart rate up. One, however, needs to be careful and ensure they don’t get injured while doing these exercises. These exercises are, moreover, entirely compatible with an existing exercise program of yours.
The other category of exercise snacks is to enhance your muscular endurance. This type of endurance exercise allows you to maintain a fixed position for some time, between 1 and 3 minutes. For this, Huberman suggests doing planks, wall sits, or a maximum number of push-ups.
Andrew Huberman mentions that a good example of an exercise snack for muscular endurance would be a 30 to 60-second or perhaps longer wall sit. In the wall sit exercise, you place your feet out at some distance from the wall. You squat down into a seated position and maintain that seated position, which becomes harder to do over time.
Here, the idea is not necessarily to go to a muscular failure but to the point where you can’t continue to sit in that wall position. Doing these exercises increases the ability to deliver more fuel and oxygen to the body. In addition, it helps you enhance your strength and hypertrophy training significantly.
“These exercise snacks serve multiple roles. They’re designed to get you moving, to get your heart rate going, to maintain or enhance your fitness in other domains of fitness.”
Dr. Huberman has been following the exercise snacks ever since Dr. Galpin suggested them to him. He incorporates it into his daily routine and suggests that everyone do the same for a healthier lifestyle. The only factor one should be aware of while following this tool is to do everything with caution and not get injured.
“I have to imagine that it’s not just the exercise snacks, but they’ve become an important part of my routine, and that relates to the second point, which is that the exercise snacks are to be fun and easy.”
Dr. Andrew Huberman talks about the 8 pillars of physical and mental well-being
In his recent tweet on X, Huberman reflected on the pillars of physical and mental health. These verticals determine the individuals’ physical and mental well-being. They cover a lot of ground on the ideas discussed by Dr. Andrew Huberman.
There are 8 pillars critical to our overall well-being, and dedicating time to invest in these helps to take care of long-term health. These include:
1) Sleep 2) Sunlight 3) Exercise 4) Stress Management 5) Relationships (Incl. To Self) 6) Nutrients (Amt., Timing, Content) 7) Oral Health & Gut Microbiome 8) Spiritual Grounding
He justifies that getting 6–8 hours of quality sleep helps get the body into rhythm. Ten minutes of sunlight helps attain the necessary red light exposure. Also, performing zone 2 cardio exercises helps to maintain physical health.
