The exercisers were asked to “challenge” themselves during the calisthenics, completing as many of each exercise as they could in a minute, before walking in place, and then moving to the next exercise.
After six weeks, all of the volunteers returned to the lab for follow-up testing. And, to no one’s surprise, the exercisers were more fit, having upped their endurance by about 7 percent, on average. Their leg power also had grown slightly. The control group’s fitness and strength remained unchanged.
“It was good to see our expectations confirmed,” says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, who oversaw the new study and, with various collaborators, has published influential studies of intense interval training in the past.
“It seemed obvious” that this kind of training should be effective, he says. But “we now have evidence” that brief, basic body-weight training “can make a meaningful difference” in fitness, he says.
The study was small and quite short-term, though, and looked at the effects only among healthy young people who are capable of performing burpees and jump squats. “Some people may need to substitute” some of the exercises, Dr. Gibala says, especially anyone who has problems with joint pain or balance. (See the Standing 7-Minute Workout for examples of appropriate replacements, in that case.)
But whatever mix of calisthenics you settle on, “the key is to push yourself a bit” during each one-minute interval, he says.
Here is the full 11-minute workout used in the study, with video links of each exercise by Linda Archila, a researcher who led the experiment while a student at McMaster University.
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1 minute of easy jumping jacks, to warm up
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1 minute of modified burpees (without push-ups)
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1 minute of walking in place
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1 minute of high-knee running in place
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1 minute of walking in place
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1 minute of split squat jumps (starting and ending in the lunge position, while alternating which leg lands forward)
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1 minute of walking in place
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1 minute of high-knee running in place
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1 minute of walking in place
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1 minute of squat jumps
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1 minute of walking in place, to cool down
