Great information! Convinced me to spend like $800 on a bike erg ...

This book is a life changer! I’ve read about interval training in the past, but I have not had the opportunity to look at the idea in depth before now. The author has carefully constructed a book filled with case studies, and he proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I should give this a try instead of just thinking that it was a an interesting concept. I honestly haven’t had a lot of time for the gym for over a year now. I didn’t even bother to renew my membership because I couldn’t fit it in with family and work. Now, at last, I have all the the information I need to succeed.

Try this—it’s definitely better than spending hours working out.

I doubted the premise of this book going into it and surprised around the simplicity to read and digest the material covered. martin and Christopher take the reader through the ways to do the work out with varying levels of intensity to fit even the smallest and most effective workout program into a beast of the challenge you will need.

Good introduction to HIIT training for those who are not in the know.

While full of great information, it was a bit too dense and "science-y" for me to get through. I try to change up my workouts and am always interested in reading workout books, however, this was too much of a drill-down for me in terms of what the body goes through during its workout, rather than suggestions of workouts to do. It may be suited more towards a gym professional than a gym novice.

Requested this out of curiosity, not expecting it to be anything other than just another vague fitness book, but it was an unexpected gem. I didn't realise it was written by someone whose research was so important in the study of HIIT exercise. The writing style was the biggest surprise - it is so fluidly written that I find I just keep reading. I'm not finished yet, but already I'm implementing some of the information into my exercise regimen.

I couldn't even finish this book. It was so basic information that anyone would know about it. I thought it would have more compound movements to really maximize your workout. This would be great for anyone who has never been to a gym before and wanting information on why you should workout.

Amazing research to stay in shape with intensity intervals of only 1 minute!
I have been very pleased to read this book, Martin Gibala is a well-known researcher who explains the physiological fundamentals of the effectiveness of ultralow-dose exercise, its scientifically evaluated benefits, and the surprising investigations that determine that are as effective as moderate or long-term training. With the collaboration of Christopher Shulgan, they deliver an easy-to-read, well-structured and polished book.
The interval-traning sprints apply to both aerobic and resistance training or body-weight lifting. This technique can benefit everyone, from people with no physical condition, older people, people with type 2 diabetes, to high-performance athletes. And because you get results very fast, it's easy to get motivated, which can be appealing to sedentary people who do not feel very interested in exercise.
This work contains many scientific references, plus tips for starting and sticking to an exercise program, the necessary concepts of how to design your own basic workout and examples of workouts.
Reading this book changed my outlook on exercise, I feel confident about the information because it is well documented, and willing to incorporate this approach into my training routines.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

The title is a bit of a misnomer. None of the workouts are actually one minute long....more like twenty to thirty minutes, with one minute of really hard work in them. While I get that you can't truly expect results from working out one minute a day, the title and book description still lead the reader to believe this is what they're going to get in these pages. There is a lot of good scientific background, and it's well-researched, but it needs a more appropriate title.

An excellent guide to short duration high intensity interval training. Gibala cites controlled studies and medical data to convince the reader that it's the intensity of the workout, not the length, that is key. To be clear, a workout takes more than a minute, but one minute of intense exertion is the minimum amount of exercise needed in a session to improve fitness. Gibala shows how even the most unfit could divide up that minute of intensity with slower-paced intervals. The author provides a broad menu of sample interval exercise routines. Novices and athletes alike will find routines to suit their needs to get (or stay) in shape, lose fat and gain muscle, all in a fraction of the time that's usually recommended.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the e-review edition of this book.

American fitness guidelines call for 150 minutes of moderate- intensity exercise per week. Here's the problem: Only a small fraction of Americans actually do that.

In THE ONE-MINUTE WORKOUT, Martin Gibala has a good answer to this dilemma: You don't really need to spend 150 minutes exercising: "Among my biggest discoveries is a workout that provides the benefits of nearly an hour of steady aerobic exercise with just a single minute of hard exercising."

Okay, the "One Minute," part is a little misleading. The total exercise time is not just a minute--that's just the time doing the tough "sprint." The rest of the time is the recovery. So it would probably be more accurate to call it TEN minutes total. Nonetheless, ten minutes is still very fast.

For years, it was believed that aerobic improvement (i.e., for endurance) required aerobic-specific exercise. That's why many people spend a long time pedaling ellipticals, for instance. The author discovered that the long durations are not always needed. If you really push yourself in brief intervals, you can still get the same aerobic-type benefit: "As you repeat the basic pattern of sprint, rest, sprint, rest, a greater proportion of the energy comes from aerobic metabolism."

The key, however, is intensity. The professor makes it clear that the exercise is intense and hurts: "When You Exercise, Go Hard!" and "The harder and faster you go, the less time your exercise requires."

Dr. Gibala cites numerous other research to support his conclusions. One study done in 2011 in Taiwan, showed that 15 minutes per day of vigorous exercise had the same life-extending benefit as 60 minutes of moderate exercise. The author admits that earlier findings about interval training "did not take." One reason is that prior studies made a big mistake--the intensity of the intervals was too low.

In one early experiment, the professor set up an experiment which compared brief interval training to traditional exercise. The results were astonishing: "In approximately the time required to do the dishes, these young men and women had doubled their endurance capacity. . . It was the most remarkable result I’d ever experienced in my lab." The high intensity group achieved the same benefit with a lot less time, and using a lot less total energy. The control group of "normal" exercisers produced 2,250 kJ of energy in one week, compared to just 225 kJ in the "sprinters."

The latter part of the book is a banquet of all kinds of interval workouts--from the briefest (and most intense), to those just starting out. For example, Chapter Six is called "Fun and Fast: The Eight Best Basic Workouts." In all the workouts, the principle is the same--the more intense you go, the briefer the workout.

In addition to just these interval workouts, the author advises adding resistance training into your routine--especially for older readers. He notes that research on the benefit of resistance training is conclusive. So, figure out "a way to get comfortable incorporating some resistance training into your workouts. That’s because resistance training becomes increasingly important the older you get."

I was glad to see the author mention safety precautions many times. Thus, one should be especially careful about signing up for the maximum intensity: "Only when you’re comfortable with variations of submaximal interval protocols should you consider moving up to the expert workouts."

For people just beginning exercise, "If you’re out of shape, don’t try to be a hero. Mitigate the low risk that exists by starting with easy workouts and then working your way up to tougher ones. Don’t begin with all-out sprints. Instead, try an interval-walking program and move gradually to more intense workouts."



All in all, I found THE ONE-MINUTE WORKOUT to be an impressive, well-supported book.
The professor cites numerous studies and peer-reviewed research to support his conclusions. This is a well-written book that is easy to follow. I was not so much interested in the physiology of his experiments, but I suspect that others will appreciate that level of detail.

I especially liked the selection of workouts with varying degrees of intensity. A clarification on terminology: Keep in mind that when the author says, "sprint," he does not mean running. He means a maximum effort on whatever exercise you are doing. For most of his studies, the subjects used stationary cycles.

Dr. Gibala suggests his workouts really can benefit everyone--not just "gym rats." He concludes his book with this admonition: "Now get out there and get to it."

For runners interested in different types of training, I would recommend the classic by Pete Magill, "Build Your Running Body."

Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.

The book looks to explain Excercise for people who do not have a lot of time to Excercise. My problem is that the book took so long to get going. If I don't have time for lots of Excercise, I don't have hours to read about it either.