It’s not always easy to integrate physical activity into a daily schedule with work and personal/family demands taking significant time and energy. If this describes your situation, you might find this new concept appealing: “fitness snacking”.

It has nothing to do with nibbling on bits of food, as the name might suggest. In fact, fitness snacking consists of short sessions of physical activity spaced throughout the day.

In concrete terms, you divide your physical activity into short sessions of 5-15 minutes per day. Whether you do a session when you wake up in the morning, or take a break between meetings, fitness snacking can easily be adapted to your busy schedule.

By splitting up several small exercise sessions throughout the day, you can achieve the same intensity as a traditional long sports session. What’s more, according to a 2019 American study, these micro-sessions are beneficial for improving cardiorespiratory fitness.

Thanks to fitness snacking, you can tone and sculpt your body without too much effort. Furthermore, you don’t necessarily need any equipment or special physical abilities.

To find some exercise ideas on TikTok, for example, simply type “exercises snacks” into the search bar. You’ll come across a plethora of videos offering a variety of moves that only take a few minutes to perform.

TikTokker Lucy Wyndham-Read, for example, suggests 10 little exercises to practice on a daily basis. Activities include calf raises in the shower, wall push-ups while waiting for the kettle to boil, and back lunges while preparing a meal in the kitchen.

For an ordered list of physical activities to do during the day, fitness coach Joe Rolder delivers a whole programme in one video. He suggests starting with skipping rope, adding a little cardio by running up the stairs on your way to work, then finishing with stretching before lunch and in the late afternoon.

The most important thing is to find your own rhythm by varying the exercises you do, so as to challenge all your muscles. This way, not only can you maintain good health, but you can also have fun exercising.