Is this you?

You make a fantastic New Year’s resolution, again, to get fit or lose that butt or gut!

You watch your food intake, start walking or running the streets and you really feel good about yourself. This is going to be the new you … a great year!

You may even join a gym.

You also download high impact motivating music to your iPhone or Pod.

You decide to do an hour of exercise every day, or maybe three or four sessions each week.

Before long, your food and exercise regime hits the back burner of your busy life! Your exercise time is attacked by other burning needs in your life – work, the family, your home renovation, study for that MBA and the committees you volunteered to join.

Your gym membership becomes a monthly debit that you don’t use.

Or your home exercise equipment you bought off the TV at 3.00 am becomes a very expense clothes rack!

Your resolution and regime vanishes into the ether of your life.

Don’t despair there is a solution to rekindle your hopes and dreams of getting fit and healthy and it doesn’t take hours.

Recent British scientific research may hold the answer to get you back on track and not invade and rob your very valuable time.

Welcome to HIT (High Intensity Training)! There now is absolute proof that training just three minutes per week can change your health, your life and possibly improve longevity.

HIT is training to maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) – meaning the maximum possible oxygen consumption (V02) that a person can utilize in a given time. In the HIT program you would go to maximum capacity of activity for twenty seconds, recover and repeat twice more, so 3 x 20 seconds and do this three times per week. If you can still carry a reasonable conversation, guess what? You are not in V02max mode!

The results are astonishing! Think about it – with just three minutes a week you will improve your glucose-insulin sensitivity, speed up your metabolism and strengthen your cardio vascular system-Wow! How is this possible? Normally you would use about 20% of muscles if you exercised in the gym, with HIT you activate about 70%. This high intensity produces enzymes, breaking down the glycogen stores in the muscles, virtually shaking up the muscles to crave more sugar and therefore taking it out of the bloodstream. Please note, this is not an excuse to eat crappy food! In order to lose weight, you need to address your food quality and quantity. Just to give you an indication of what it takes to burn the calories of a cappuccino, a blueberry muffin and a banana, the average mid morning snack, it will take you about 55 minutes of running at six km/hour – gasp!

It may not be for people with existing health issues. Please get a clearance from your doctor even if you believe you are healthy. It can be quite intimidating to cycle or run as if the devil is breathing down your neck.

Can you see yourself exercising in your office gear? Three sessions of one minute, throw in some more walking during the week and you become fit and healthy with hardly working up a sweat. Go on, if that does not put a smile on your face…