Speaker 1: 1:25

Welcome to the podcast everyone. I'm your host, dr JE Tita. Today's conversation is one that I think is going to be fun for everyone and a little bit counterintuitive, but it is a topic that has been picking up steam in the news in health and fitness and many health and fitness professionals have started to pick this concept up. And, of course you may. If you follow me on all my social media accounts, you may have seen me for the last several months putting up a service where you can get this practice for free. And so what are we talking about? Well, we're talking about the idea of what would be termed exercise snacks snacks sort of in quotation, because obviously we are not talking about eating donuts and snacking on food. We're talking about snacking on physical activity, and in the research, this is oftentimes referred to as VILPA, v-i-l-p-a or VILPA. Vilpa stands for Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity or VILPA Vigorous Intermittent Physical Activity. Now, of course, in research, researchers are always coming up with these big long activities or big long acronyms and names for things that make it a little bit more complicated, but the way to think about this is think about this as interval training that is not done within a workout but done throughout the day, very short microbursts. Now there is some terminology we have to work out here. I'm going to do a whole other podcast on micro workouts have to work out here. I'm going to do a whole other podcast on micro workouts.

Speaker 1: 3:14

But micro bursts and micro workouts are somewhat different. Micro bursts or exercise snacking or burst training or vilpa or vipa we're talking about all the same things here Vigorous, intermittent lifestyle physical activity that is spread out throughout the day. These little intermittent activities, these vigorous bouts of intermittent activity spread throughout the day, typically last in the research a few seconds, like 30 seconds, up to a few minutes, like three minutes. Typically they are right around one minute to three minutes in duration a very short period of time. And a micro workout is different. In the research, a micro workout is typically a workout that is between 10 and 15 minutes. The metabolic female programs and metabolic male programs that I offer and their precursors metabolic aftershock, metabolic prime and metabolic renewal these are micro workouts. And so when you're looking at the research in exercise and you see micro workouts being referred to and being studied, these are longer workouts that are 10 to 15 minutes in duration and these are called micro workouts because typically workouts will last anywhere from 30 minutes on the short end up to 90 minutes on the long end over at Metabolic. When I was with Metabolic, we really pioneered this micro workout to the masses all the way back with Metabolic Aftershock in 2014.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Prior to that Metabolic Effect, the company I started initially was doing this all the way back, starting in 2004. That's where I want to start this discussion, because let's go back all the way to 2004 when I was on my way driving back from medical school from Seattle Washington to Winston-Salem, north Carolina Very long trip and one of the things that I did on that road trip is I would stop every time I had to pee at a rest area or every time I had to fill up and get gas. One of the things I would do is I would set a timer and or a certain amount of things to do. For example, I used to do 70, try to do 70 pushups every time I would stop, or one minute of squat jumps or two minutes of lunges, and I didn't have any equipment, but I would do this throughout the day and, as you can imagine, you're doing long drives, driving 10 to 12 hours daily, you're stopping every couple hours and so I was getting in six, sometimes seven or eight, especially when I was drinking a lot of water and had to pee a lot of these movements, these microbursts. This was all the way back in 2004. And I found this as a very effective way to get my workout in when I was on the road. So I started doing this out of necessity, when I would take long drives, which I love to do and still love to do. Even when I was in Seattle. I used to take long drives down to see my uncle and aunt in Los Angeles, and so I would do these micro workouts and got into a habit of doing this.

Speaker 1: 6:38

And then I started to incorporate them sort of into my daily life long days in the clinic when I couldn't get a workout in, or long days when I was teaching where I knew I wasn't going to get a workout in, or long days when I was teaching where I knew I wasn't going to get a workout in, or long days when I was at a medical conference or something like that, when I knew I couldn't get a workout in. I would use these. What I called at the time burst training is what I called it these short bursts of activity spread throughout the day, and I did these in two specific ways that we're going to talk about in this particular podcast, and we'll get into some of the research as well, because a lot of this research didn't exist when I first started doing this. It was just something that I did because it was efficient and convenient, and me and my brother Keone just got very into doing these very short duration bouts or bursts of activity to keep our exercise up. At the time we were far more fanatical about this stuff than we are now.

Speaker 1: 7:38

This would be in our early 30s, late 20s, early 30s, versus now in our early 50s, and so there are two ways that we used to do this. One way would just be to pick some kind of activity that would get our lungs going and get our muscles going, for example, like a burpee with a push up at the bottom and a jump at the top, and we would do these for one to two minutes, and then that would be what we do. Then we'd get back in the car, or we'd get back to teaching, or we'd get back into the conference that we were at. Now, another way that we would do this is we would pick a body part and we would do this body part throughout the day. For example, let's say I'm going to pick pushups. What I would do then is I would every couple hours during the day, is I would do as many pushups as I could inside of one to two minutes. Now, believe it or not, I started doing this stuff before. I carried a cell phone with me everywhere. So initially I would do this just for a set number of repetitions, maybe like 70 to 100 pushups, and that would take me one to three, sometimes up to five minutes. And that's one way to do this is to just set a number of repetitions.

Speaker 1: 8:53

For example, let's say you were doing push-ups and you're going to set 25 push-ups as your intermittent burst. So you do 25 push-ups. Two hours later, you do another 25 push-ups. Two hours later, you do another 25. Two hours later, another 25, two hours later, another 25. And you accumulate over 100 push-ups through the day. Now what is going to happen is this is going to give you a lot of volume on that muscle group that's working, primarily the chest and anterior deltoid, the front of the shoulder and the triceps, and so those muscle groups the shoulder, the chest and the triceps when you're doing pushups repeatedly like that and accumulating a large amount of volume, within the day you're actually going to feel like you got a workout. Not only are you going to feel like you got a workout, but you did get a workout. But you did get a workout. You got the muscular damage, the muscular strain, the metabolic fatigue, and your muscles will respond with adaptation signals. And so, yes, even with this intermittent way of doing things, you could use this even for something like muscle hypertrophy.

Speaker 1: 10:06

Let's go back just to what we know in the research about what causes. What are some of the causes of muscle hypertrophy? Well, metabolic stress, when you get these burning sensations in the muscle, this metabolic stress. Also metabolic damage, or muscle damage in the tissues, when you get the stress and strain and little micro tears in the muscle. And also volume, micro tears on the muscle, and also volume at least volume when you get lots and lots of movement. So you can stimulate it through muscle strain and tears, you can stimulate it through metabolic sort of challenges and you can stimulate it just through the amount of work that the muscle has to do, and so you can use these microbursts or this vigorous intermittent activity as a way to even get in your body part training when you are not able to get in a workout, and it is highly effective and efficient.

Speaker 1: 11:01

In fact, I just did a road trip up to Chicago a couple weeks ago and I had a kettlebell in the back of my car and I had a set of dumbbells and I basically did that trip over 10 hours and stopped about five or six times and basically used those implements that I had in the back of my car to do different body parts, and so on the way up, I was doing bicep curls and kettlebell swings, and on the way back down, I was doing a curl and a press as well as push-ups with the dumbbells and then just a regular push-up and was able to get my workout in and get an awful lot of volume in. This is one of these things that really, when I was doing this way back when I didn't necessarily think that it was nearly as effective as a regular workout. It was just something that I was doing to make sure I got something in, so I didn't take time off. But now we're starting to see research that is showing this can actually be as good, perhaps, as a regular workout. Let me give you a study from December 2022 that was published in Nature Medicine. This is volume number 28, december 22 of Nature Medicine. If you want the page numbers, I have them. I'm looking at my notes right now Pages 2521 to 2529. And what this study looked at was three to four one-minute vigorous intermittent activity sessions throughout the day. Okay, so they basically had up to 4.4 minutes of activity. This could be things like jumping jacks, this could be things like push-ups, this could be things like skipping rope, jumping rope, jumping jacks, this kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Now, normally, when you look at the research on these burst training, or what I call burst training or this VILPA or VEPA activity they're usually doing things that are more cardio based, and this is across the board. Unfortunately, in exercise research, cardiovascular studies have dominated most of the research, with resistance training sessions being studied much less. I would argue that it is far better, if you're going to do these types of things, to either A combine cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. So, for example, instead of doing squats or jumping jacks, do a squat press or a burpee or something that gets the whole body involved, or just do resistance training. Because when you do intense resistance training at high levels, which are going to do with the short bouts of activity. You're going to get the breathless effect also, and so I just want to draw your attention to. Normally, when they're doing this, they're looking at a breathless type of activity, cardio based activities. But you can do this and should do this, and I'm going to tell you how to do this in a minute with resistance training.

Speaker 1: 16:47

So what did they find in this particular study? Well, they showed and the way they did this study, by the way, these kinds of studies is they looked at individuals who. They would have accelerometers that they put on and they would follow them and see what they did throughout the day so they could tell if they went up a flight of steps fast or if they were carrying heavy groceries, or if they had to run for the bus stop or whatever this is. This particular study was just looking at associations between bursts of activity that people would do throughout the day, not necessarily structured things like jumping jacks and things like that. What they found is that the people who accumulated about 4.4 minutes of vigorous, intermittent physical activity throughout the day had a 26 to 30% decrease in all-cause mortality, and when they brought that up to 11 minutes, they saw even higher reduced rates.

Speaker 1: 17:50

They also saw I'm sorry, actually, let me, let me amend that for you, because I just read that wrong what they saw was a 40 percent decrease in all cause mortality. They saw a 26 to 30 percent decrease in cancer mortality risk and they saw a 32 to 34 percent drop in cardiovascular death risk. And so I'll say that one more time, just so you have it straight 40 percent drop in all cause mortality, up to 30 percent drop in mortality from cancer risk and 34 percent in cardiovascular death. And when they took that 4.4 minutes up to close to 11 minutes or 11 one-minute sessions per day, they saw a death rate decline in cardiovascular risk of 65%. So that's what this study in the December 22 Nature Medicine Journal found. So that gives you some really beautiful statistics Medicine Journal found so that gives you some really beautiful statistics basically finding 30% reduced risk or greater in four minutes of this activity. And if you go up to 11 sessions of this activity, you see cardiovascular disease risk going down by 65%. Now this is equivalent to, and perhaps even greater in some studies than, traditional cardiovascular exercise.

Speaker 1: 19:16

This is incredibly powerful stuff, and this is just one study that I am referencing here for you. So the idea here would be is this exciting? Absolutely. It is exciting to now have data that is actually showing that this is powerful, and what they're actually showing is that any type of activity in other studies, more recent studies, are showing any type of activity that can break up sitting is also beneficial, even if it's not super intense. For example, if you are sitting all day, one recent study showed that just getting up and doing one to two minutes of squats up and down and then sitting back down and getting back to work can essentially wipe out the health.

Speaker 1: 20:02

When we look at research and making recommendations regarding what we should be doing for our health, that they're calling sitting the new smoking and we all have heard for years how bad smoking is and how much it increases our risk of morbidity in terms of disease and mortality in terms of death Well, they're basically showing that sitting for long periods of time may be as dangerous as smoking, and what these sessions are doing is they're breaking that up. And so what I want you to be thinking about when you're thinking about this VILPA activity or these microbursts sort of workouts that I'm going to teach you how to do in this podcast is I want you to think about doing them, especially during times when you are working for long periods of time and sitting and taking breaks. We people in the Western world, and especially us Americans, have a very bad habit of sitting for very long periods of time without getting up. We really should, for our health, make sure that we stand up and move around every hour or so, and we can, especially if we're not exercising. We can amplify the intensity of these times when we're not sitting and start getting some exercise benefits.

Speaker 1: 21:30

Okay, so how do we do these things? Well, first of all, what I want to tell you is that I have a new service for you that goes right along with this. That is absolutely free. This service all you have to do is go to drjcom slash snacks drjcom slash snacks and basically put in your email. It'll take you to a page where you can then put in your number, your cell phone number, and you will get a text that reminds you, every couple hours or so, to do a snack. Not only will you get a text, but you'll get a little link to a micro burst workout that lasts anywhere from one minute to three minutes. That does not require any equipment whatsoever, and you can do these snacks and follow along and get them sent right to your phone. This is absolutely free, there is no charge for this at all, and you can get these snacks for free. I encourage all of you to take advantage of this. Drjcom slash snacks. Now, these snacks that are sent out, basically in the ones that I give you for free. All you need to do is hit the link and follow along and listen to what you're being told to do, and you can essentially do the workout and then get right back into your day and do that several times throughout the day.

Speaker 1: 22:59

For the benefit of these, now you can also design these yourself, and so let's go through two ways of doing this. First of all, let's talk to the person who doesn't do much exercise at all, so you're not working out much. Maybe a burning effect and a breathless effect simultaneously in your body. You'll feel some burning and you'll feel some breathlessness. One of the easiest things, if you have steps near you, is to do walking and climbing steps, and what you'll do is you can set your timer on your phone for every two hours and when that timer goes off and says it's time to do your exercise burst or your exercise snack. What you can do is go, climb steps, find steps in your house, go up the steps, go down the steps, go up the steps, go down the steps and set your timer for anywhere from one minute to three minutes and go up and down those steps.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Now, if you don't have steps, you can do a squat or you can do a lunge, and what you want to do on the squat is take out the bottom of the squat and the top of the squat, so you take out the resting, so you get a little tension squat, we call it, where you don't rest the bottom and you don't rest at the top and you're sort of pulsing in that middle range, that three quarters rep range, and you will find that your muscles begin to burn and this is what you want to go for. And leg workouts or leg microbursts are some of the best to do, because the legs are the biggest combined muscle groups in the body and so you get an awful lot of metabolic action when you're working your legs. Now, if you want to ramp this up a little bit, get a couple dumbbells, light little dumbbells, put them by your desk and when you do your squat, also do a press or do a curl, or do a lunge and a press, or a lunge and a curl so-called hybrid movements. If you've ever done some of my workouts, like metabolic aftershock, metabolic renewal, metabolic prime and also in metabolic female and metabolic male my new programs you know what these hybrid moves are. Any hybrid move does really well. A squat with a lunge, a squat with a press, a squat with a side raise, a squat with a front raise All of these things work really well. A squat with a curl and a press. Also a lunge and a curl, a lunge and a press, a lunge with a curl and a press. So you get the idea.

Speaker 1: 25:39

The idea is to get as many muscle groups as possible involved with these micro bursts. That's for you individuals who don't do any other activity throughout your day. What you might want to do is just these microbursts, and it doesn't matter what you do, just do any of them and try to accumulate four of these to six of these throughout the day. Four to six every two to four hours. You want to get these in throughout the day. Now, if you sign up for the free snacks that I give you at drjcom slash snacks what that does is give you a snack to do every four hours. One comes at 10, I'm sorry, every two hours. One comes at 10 am, one comes at 12 pm, one comes at 2 pm and one comes at 4 pm. So it's designed for individuals who are sitting at their desk all day working. So you get one at 10 am, you get one at 12 pm, you get one at 2, and then you get one at 4.

Speaker 1: 26:42

Now, if you're doing this on your own, you might want to just do one at eight, one at 10, one at 12, one at two, one at four, one at six, if you want to ramp that up a little bit. So that's for the person who's not doing any other activity at all. Now you might be a type of person who goes I want to just do these workouts and only these workouts. How would you structure these? Well, what I would do is alternate days. So on one day I would do pick a muscle group upper body, let's say and on the next day you would pick a cardiovascular approach, and then you would alternate like that.

Speaker 1: 27:16

And so, let's say, on Monday you just do push-ups, you're working push-ups which works the shoulders, the chest and the triceps, and so at 8 am, 10 am, 12 pm, 2 pm, 4 pm and 6 pm you basically do push-ups, one minute of push-ups during that time and then you basically wait till the next day. Now, the next day you can do something that is more breathless-oriented like jumping jacks, like climbing steps, like a squat and a press, like anything to get you breathless oriented like jumping jacks, like climbing steps, like a squat and a press, like anything to get you breathless. Then on Wednesday you go back to upper body, but this time you do back and biceps, let's say so. This time you basically do bent over rows with your dumbbells. So at 8 am, 10, 12, 2, 4, and 6, you do one to two minutes of bent over rows with your dumbbells. Then on Thursday you go back to doing a cardio-based burst type of approach and then on Friday you're back to doing chest and triceps and shoulders again. So you can see that on the days you're doing the cardio stuff, you're getting your legs in. On those days you're doing things like squats and presses, punches, climbing stairs, et cetera, but on the alternate days you're doing something strength-based for the upper body, and you can do this Monday through Sunday, just alternating these days. One day it's upper body. The next day it's cardio slash legs. Next day it's upper body. The next day it's cardio slash legs.

Speaker 1: 28:52

Now, what if you're somebody who is already very active and doing workouts? Already you work out every day, you are, you know, most of the week, you know, let's say, three to six times per week Excuse me, I got a little bit of a cold but you're working out, let's say, three to six times per week. Do you need to do these? Well, the answer is absolutely not. You do not need to do these. The next question you might ask is will it benefit me if I do In the same way that accumulating steps 10,000 steps per day, let's say, while you're working out, can benefit you absolutely?

Speaker 1: 29:30

These short bursts of activity can certainly benefit you up to a point. I would say, if you're already working out five to seven days per week, you probably don't necessarily need to add these in, and if you do, make them more gentle bursts rather than extremely intense bursts. However, if you're working out three to five times per week, putting these in may amplify your results, and so they can be very beneficial that way, and where most fitness-oriented people are going to find these useful is you're going to find them very useful when you are going through long days of work where you know you're not going to be able to get a workout in, or when you're traveling or when you're at conferences. Anytime you know you're not going to be able to get your normal workout in, you can always use these microburst workouts. Now remember the rules. One minute to three minutes max is basically what you want to do with these. I also want to let you know that, because they're so short, there's no real warm-up here.

Speaker 1: 30:36

With these things. You do might want to come in a little bit gingerly and come out of them a little bit more slowly, but you ramp up and you really push these. And because you're only doing one to three minutes, what's nice about this is you do not need to change out of them a little bit more slowly, but you ramp up and you really push these. And because you're only doing one to three minutes, what's nice about this is you do not need to change out of your work clothes. It's not long enough for you to get hot and sweaty. That's another reason why these are so convenient for a lot of people, because you never actually have to change out of your clothes.

Speaker 1: 31:02

Many of you who have done some of my retreats or some of my online events are already familiar with the way that I use these. Because I tell you to do these and sometimes we do these together you do not need to change in and out of your clothes because they can be so powerful, and so these microburst workouts can be incredibly effective for you. They can dramatically enhance health, as we talked about in that nature medicine study. There's not much research on how this can impact body composition yet, but I can tell you, based on some of the things I told you about my experience way back when, where I would do one body part throughout the day, you will get delayed onset muscle sores. You will feel like you got a workout in, and therefore I am convinced that, done the right way, these can certainly hypertrophy, especially for people who are beginners to weight training, and so there will be more research on this.

Speaker 1: 32:01

I will certainly be talking about it. It is a very powerful tool to use with your health and fitness, and so I hope that you begin to incorporate these microbursts into your workout, and you're certainly welcome to use the ones I have prepared for you for free. Just go to drjadecom slash snacks drjadecom slash snacks and you will get these microburst exercise snacks for free delivered right to your cell via text. All right, I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. I hope it's a really powerful tool that you can use and I will see you at the next podcast, where we'll likely be talking about micro workouts and rest based training. Have a good one, everyone. Talk to you soon.