LAST YEAR IT became one of Apple’s most popular health and fitness apps and Johnson and Johnson’s seven-minute app has still remained there, with almost two million downloads.
But can a seven-minute workout really produce results – and really be that good?
The guy who came up with this app – Chris Jordan, might have a vested interest in it as he’s the Director of Exercise Physiology at the company’s human performance institute, though others are inclined to think that what he preaches is in fact, very beneficial.
One circuit lasts seven minutes, and though he initially recommended the circuits be done two or three times in a session, seven minutes has been proven to yield results.
“When it comes to the immediate health benefits of this sort of high-intensity exercise, it’s all about blood sugar,” said Timothy Church, a professor of preventive medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University.
“When you engage in one of these rapid-fire sessions, you ignite your body’s stress response: Your blood pressure, heart rate, and metabolism instantly spike, and your body begins its process of churning fat and carbs into fuel and rushing blood to your muscles.
“The positive health effects are instantaneous.”
For his own research, Jordan used a circuit of 12 body-weight movements and recommended doing each exercise for 30 seconds followed by five seconds of rest.
The results backed up his and Church’s claims and what followed was a raft of seven-minute workout apps, though we stress this is just one circuit – and we’re going to recommend at least two.
Why is this app good?
As already mentioned, shorter, sharper workouts have been proven to get better results than longer, less intense workouts and this belief is at the core of the Johnson and Johnson 7-minute app workout.
It’s an easy app, designed for professional people on the go or busy parents who haven’t the time to get to a gym or a fitness class.
There’s also huge variation in the workouts themselves, meaning you shouldn’t get bored or stale of going through the same routine day after day.
The exercises can be done in the home and combine aerobic and resistance movements, meaning when you’re exercising one muscle group another is resting.
The app has very good navigation and as well as being easy to use, it’s easy to set up, so newbie smartphone users shouldn’t be worried about getting bogged down.
Why’s it not so good?
A few minor complaints are you can’t play music on your phone in the background while the app is running and it’s a pretty huge app so it takes up a lot of storage space.
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