How long do you spend per day sitting or indulging in sedentary activity? New research suggests that breaking up that sedentary time with ‘exercise snacks,’ may prevent muscle mass deterioration from a sedentary lifestyle.

Exercise snacking can be defined as small amounts of exercise - such as 2 minutes of walking or squats.

Study Summary

This new research, including 12 participants, found that:

• Interrupting prolonged sitting every 30 minutes with exercise snacks, promoted healthy quantity and quality of muscle to prevent damage to muscle mass.

Note: This study had a small sample size - more research is needed to cement these findings.

The Hearty Take

Since time spent sitting can promote the loss of muscle mass, it is important to intervene insedentary time. Interrupting prolonged sitting with small amounts of exercise may promotethe use of post-meal amino acids for building muscle to counteract this muscle loss. ‘Exercise snack’, and don’t forget to prioritize daily planned exercise!