Martin Gibala

PhD · Professor of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada · co-author of The One-Minute Workout

Go-to expert for: short, time-efficient interval training

Who and why

Martin Gibala is a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Canada and one of the best-known researchers on brief, intense interval training. Since the mid-2000s his lab has shown that a few minutes of hard effort, repeated, can improve fitness and metabolic health about as much as much longer steady workouts. He also studies 'exercise snacks' such as quick bursts of stair climbing.

Why it matters after 50: Fitness (VO2max) declines with age and is a strong marker of long-term health, yet lack of time is one of the most common reasons people give for not exercising. Short interval sessions offer a way to keep heart and muscle fitness up in less time.

What Gibala recommends

Three short interval sessions a week can work. In his 12-week trial, 10 minutes with just three 20-second all-out sprints improved fitness and insulin sensitivity about as much as 50 minutes of steady cycling.Strong evidence
You do not need all-out sprints. A gentler format, 10 × 1 minute hard (breathing heavily) with 1 minute easy in between, improved muscle fitness and blood sugar control in sedentary middle-aged adults.Some evidence
Use 'exercise snacks': briskly climbing a few flights of stairs, three times a day with a few hours in between, modestly raised fitness in inactive adults.Some evidence
Short bursts of vigorous effort in daily life (about 1 minute, several times a day, like fast stair climbing or a brisk uphill walk) are linked to lower risk of early death in people who do not otherwise exercise.Some evidence
Intervals are a time-saving option, not a replacement for being generally active. Mixing them with walking and strength training is sensible.Note
If you have heart disease, high blood pressure or have been inactive, check with your doctor before doing hard intervals and start with the gentler formats.Doctor only

Signature: The 10-minute workout (3 × 20 seconds all-out)

A 10-minute session: 2-minute warm-up, three 20-second all-out efforts separated by 2 minutes of easy pedalling, and a 3-minute cool-down. Done three times a week for 12 weeks, it matched a 50-minute moderate session for fitness gains in his 2016 trial.

In your plan

Add his short-interval option: 10–15 minute sessions that count toward the weekly limit of two hard sessions.

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Research and honest caveats

One minute of hard effort versus 45 minutes steady

Over 12 weeks, sedentary men doing the 10-minute sprint workout improved fitness by about 19% and insulin sensitivity similarly to men doing 50-minute moderate sessions, despite one-fifth of the time.

Gillen, Martin, MacInnis, Skelly, Tarnopolsky & Gibala, PLOS ONE, 2016

Stair-climbing exercise snacks

Climbing three flights of stairs vigorously three times a day, three days a week for six weeks, raised fitness in inactive young adults, though the increase was modest.

Jenkins, Nairn, Skelly, Little & Gibala, Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, 2019

Most of his trials are small, short (2 to 12 weeks), and done in younger or middle-aged adults, often men, so evidence in people over 65 is thinner. The lifestyle-burst findings come from observational data, so they show association rather than proof, and a small pilot in type 2 diabetes found three 1-minute stair bouts did not change blood sugar.

Career highlights

2006Published a study showing short sprint intervals matched long endurance training in muscle adaptations over two weeks
2010His team published a more practical, non-all-out model of repeated 1-minute intervals
2016Led the 12-week trial comparing 1 minute of sprinting with 45 minutes of steady cycling
2017Published The One-Minute Workout (Penguin Random House)