What are trigger workouts and why you should definitely do them

What is trigger training

Trigger, intermittent, micro or mini workouts are short series of exercises that you do throughout the day. This technique was described byTrigger workouts: The intermittent workout method that could transform the way you exercise. Coach Craig Weller, former Marine and bodyguard and now Director of Sports Programs at Precision Nutrition.

The essence of trigger training is to do the exercises little by little, but regularly and often - about once an hour, do several short sets with little or no resistance.

Mini-workouts eliminate heavy loads and work to muscle failure. The activity should be light enough so that your brain perceives it not as impending stress and fatigue, but as an interesting challenge and a pleasant opportunity to take a break from work.

How intermittent workouts came about

Weller was involved with the Precision Nutrition exercise library a few years ago. For 2.5 weeks, he showed different movements for 10 hours a day. He did this five days a week.

In an hour in the gym, you can perform about 100-200 repetitions, while Weller did 1-2 thousand times in one working day - an unthinkable amount for a regular workout.

For half a month of work, he significantly improved his physical shape: he lost weight, pumped up his muscles and felt great. After this unintentional transformation, Weller wondered what made his workout different from his regular gym workout and highlighted several differences:

• He moved most of the day, but little by little and not super intensively, so it wasn't hard.
• He worked intermittently: the filming included the female and male versions of the exercises, so while the girl was filmed, he was resting.
• He used fairly light weights - they took light dumbbells for filming.
• He perceived the workout itself in a different way - not as a way to tire the muscles, but as work that needs to be completed.

Building on these differences, Weller decided that attitudes toward physical activity were key.

When you come to workout, exercise for an hour and do it to tire your muscles and achieve results, the body reacts to the load as stress, and the brain very soon turns on the signals tiredness.

If you distribute approaches throughout the day, activity is perceived not as a threat, but as an interesting challenge that you will definitely cope with. As a result, you can do much more without feeling tired and reap tremendous benefits from it.

Why trigger workouts are good

This training method can be a real salvation for those who work from home and spend most of the day sitting. Moreover, it does not matter whether you play sports in your free time from work. If you sit for hours continuously, trigger workouts are the way to go.

Save the body from the harm of a sedentary lifestyle

The more you sit, the higherToo much sitting — a health hazard the risk of weight gain and obesity, the development of cell insensitivity to insulin and type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Even regular training for an hour a day does not save you from increased risks if you spend the rest of the time sitting.

In one American studyAmount of time spent in sedentary behaviors and cause-specific mortality in US adults tracked morbidity and mortality of more than 240 thousand adults (50–70 years old) for 8.5 years.

It turned out that people who watched television about seven hours a day were at much higher risk of dying from heart disease and other causes than those who spent less than one hour a day in front of the screen.

Moreover, the risks remained elevated, even if TV fans played sports seven or more hours a week - quite a lot, especially given their age.

Continuous sitting for a long time has an even worse effect on health.

In cross-sectional analysisSedentary time and cardio-metabolic biomarkers in US adults: NHANES 2003-06 using data from 4,757 American adults found that the more breaks people take in prolonged sitting, the smaller their waist circumference and the amount of C-reactive protein - a marker of inflammation in organism.

Micro-training will not only increase your total physical activity (and calories burned) per day, but also dilute continuous sitting. In the long term, this can save you from an increase in centimeters in the waist and an increased level of inflammation.

Helps you think better and worry less

In the reviewPhysical Activity, Cognition, and Brain Outcomes: A Review of the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines scientific studies have found that physical activity of moderate to high intensity has a positive effect on cognitive features including academic performance and test scores for processing speed, memory and executive functions.

In addition, scientists have found compelling evidence that physical activity reduces the risk of developing age-related cognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Even one short workout can have a positive effect on your brain.

For example, in a studyAcute moderate exercise elicits increased dorsolateral prefrontal activation and improves cognitive performance with Stroop test with the participation of 20 young healthy people, they tested how physical activity will affect the results in the Stroop test - a task in which you need to name the color of words, regardless of the meaning of the inscription.

On one day, the participants simply passed the test, and on the other, they did a light workout on a bicycle ergometer, and then repeated the task with colored words.

Scientists have found that the part of the prefrontal cortex responsible for performing a cognitive task is much better activated after physical activity. This was confirmed by the test results: the participants responded much faster after training.

In addition, exercise can reduce anxiety.Exploring exercise as an avenue for the treatment of anxiety disorders and improveThe acute effects of exercise on mood state mood, so your chances of ending the day in good spirits are greatly increased.

Helps to practice technique and improve performance in sports

The more often you make a movement, the better it is and the less energy you spend on it. With each repetition, neuromuscular control increases: the body learns to more effectively tense and relax the muscles and use just as many fibers as needed.

Unlike deliberately working off to fatigue or failure, small trigger sets will not cause fatigue. which means that you can work on problem areas really often and improve your movement technique faster.

Save from frequent snacks

And although personal experience is not the best proof of effectiveness - if you have long wanted to give up snacks, you should try (and write in the comments what you did).

How to design your trigger workout

Weller gaveTrigger workouts: The intermittent workout method that could transform the way you exercise. some recommendations on how to create a mini-workout.

What movements to choose

For intermittent workouts, exercises that involve many muscle groups at once are suitable. But at the same time, they are quite simple and can be performed without a warm-up.

Here are some good examples:

• air squats;
• light goblet squats;
• different variations of lunges;
• kettlebell swings and jerks (provided that you are familiar with the technique);
• pushups;
• bent over row of dumbbells;
• oblique pull-ups on rings or training loops;
• pull-ups on the horizontal bar;
• standing dumbbell press (with light weight);
• pulling the expander to the chest;
• straight and side planks.

You can also incorporate movement into your micro workouts. stretching and the development of mobility. For example, something from dynamic stretchingto simultaneously develop joint mobility and warm up muscles.

Pick 1-3 moves from the list and try them throughout the day. You can do one thing all day, or alternate exercises to add variety and evenly load your entire body. It is best to combine lower and upper body movements such as chin-ups and squats in one trigger workout.

And to protect your shoulders from overload, you should add twice as many pulls (pull-ups, pulling a dumbbell or expander to the chest and abdomen) than presses (push-ups, dumbbell press from the chest).

How to choose the number of approaches and repetitions

Perform 1-3 sets of exercises in one micro workout. Remember that your goal is not to get tired, but to add a little more physical activity.

For reps, test different exercises and figure out the perfect amount for yourself. At the end of the set, you shouldn't even come close to giving up or feel a significant burning sensation in the muscles.

Most of the exercises should be done five times. If you wish, you can increase this amount, but only if the movement is really easy for you and does not cause fatigue.

How many times a day do

In trigger workouts, regularity and frequency are key. To avoid missing mini exercise sessions, set a timer and exercise every 45-60 minutes.

You can also tie micro-training to some frequent event: a desire to have a snack, a walk under a horizontal bar, a smoke break. In this case, you don't even need a timer: thought about a candy in the buffet - went to work out (and then took your candy if you still want to).

You can build trigger workouts into pomodoro mode. This is when the working day is divided into segments of 25 minutes of full concentration (tomatoes) with five-minute breaks in between. After four "tomatoes" take a long break of 15-30 minutes.

For five minutes of rest between the "tomatoes" you will have time to do two sets of air squats and two sets of five push-ups. And even there will be time to go to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

What kind of workout can you try

Weller broughtTrigger workouts: The intermittent workout method that could transform the way you exercise. example of micro training for one day. You can use some of the movements from it, or - if you have a kettlebell, expander, dumbbells and a press wheel - complete the program.

• 8:00 - 5 push-ups, 5 reps of "dead beetle", 4 circles.
• 9:00 - 5 goblet squats, 10 kettlebell swings, 5 lunges on each leg.
• 10:30 - 10 stretches with an expander, 5 push-ups, 3 circles.
• 11:30 - 5 goblet squats, 5 dumbbell rows on each side, 4 circles.
• 13:00 - 5 press rolls with a wheel, 5 “no money” lines with an expander, 5 lines with an expander, 3 circles.
• 2:30 pm - 10 seconds side plank on each side, 5 dumbbell lunges on each side, 2 rounds.
• 15:30 - 5 rows of dumbbells on each side, 5 deadlifts with dumbbells on each leg, 3 circles.
• 17:00 - 5 dumbbell presses on each side, 10 layouts, 2 circles.

If you like the program, but lack the equipment, you can replace the dumbbells with water bottles, and the rolling press wheel with a bar.

What to combine trigger workouts with

Weller recommends not doing micro-training with the only activity of the day. When the opportunity arises, go for a walk, run, dance, play outdoor games.

If you're doing fitness, swinging, or doing interval training, keep them on your schedule: micro-training does not cancel other physical activity, but only complements it, helping you sit less and better yourself feel.

---

Try micro workouts and write your impressions in the comments.