I don’t know if you’ve heard the big news. But if you haven’t heard of the Seven Minute Workout, you may be wasting time.
Back in 2013, a New York Times article covering a seven-minute circuit workout created a stir. The workout was published in the American College of Sports Medicine's (ACSM) Health & Fitness Journal, and it claims that this seven minute workout that consists of "12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall," satisfies the latest high-intensity effort instructions.
The workout "essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it based on science.” That was a pretty hefty claim, and if proved to be true, could really make a huge difference for millions of busy people who eliminate exercise for its time-consuming nature.The exercises are very simple, but require your intensity to stay at an eight on a scale from one to 10. You’re allowed to take a ten second break in between each of the 12 exercises, which each last 30 seconds.
It is also important that you do the exercises in order to allow your individual muscles to get a break in between exercises that utilize them. The authors warn that those seven minutes, although they are brief, should be extremely intense and pretty uncomfortable. But come on, you have to admit that seven minutes of discomfort is worth it if the results are substantial.

Most people don’t workout because of two reasons: time and motivation. This method eliminates the stress of time, and knowing that you’ll be done in a matter of minutes is pretty motivating, if you ask me.

However, one big issue remains: does it actually work? Huffington Post’s Sarah Klein tried the workout and said she would definitely do it again. She broke a sweat and felt the burn throughout the workout. The claim, however, that “even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding” is hard to believe.

High-intensity interval workouts are old news, at this point, and they’re productive, but the equivalent of several hours of running? I’m no scientist, but that sounds pretty unrealistic. Still, I would definitely give it a try. What do you have to lose? Besides seven minutes, of course.