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People repeatedly report that a busy schedule is one of the biggest barriers to regular exercise. “I can’t find the time” is a common refrain.

If you’re looking at current guidelines for physical activity, the number of minutes can feel daunting. Adults should aim for 150 minutes of exercise a week. That’s 30 minutes, five days a week.

However, exercise can happen in many different forms and time frames. Though 150 minutes a week is a good goal, it’s not the only way to approach fitness.

There’s been increasing interest in the benefits of short bouts of exercise. In other words, you can do quick workouts when you only have a few minutes. These quick bursts of exercise have many benefits and are easy to fit into your schedule.

Also, they add up — every little bit of exercise counts.

What’s a Micro Workout?

Micro workouts are short exercise routines that function as mini workouts. Scientific literature calls it vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA).

We can break each part of that down:

• Vigorous — It’s not easy! It either gets your heart pumping fast or quickly fatigues your muscles.
• Intermittent — It isn’t regular. You may do several micro workouts throughout the day.
• Lifestyle — These are quick bouts of exercise that work with your lifestyle. You base them on when you have free time.
• Physical activity — These quick workouts do count as physical activity.

VILPA can last as little as 10 seconds. One form of VILPA is running up a flight of stairs instead of taking the elevator.

Micro workouts are definitely in the VILPA category. These tiny workouts can focus on one body part. If you’ve ever tried a five-minute core class, you know five minutes is plenty long to feel the burn!

Short bursts of high-intensity exercises also fit this category. Think about doing 100 jumping jacks or 20 burpees.

What Are the Benefits of Quick Workouts?

A 2025 British Journal of Sports Medicine study looked specifically at these short bursts of exercise. They found that women who did an average of 3.4 minutes of high-intensity exercise a day:

• Were 51% less likely to experience a heart attack.
• Lowered their risk for heart failure by 67%.
• Were 45% less likely to have any cardiac event or stroke.

Even the really small bursts, like one to two minutes, lowered the risk of heart problems by 30%.

These quick workouts can also boost your mood. That’s what a 2024 Communications Psychology review study found.

It looked at single bouts of exercise among younger adults (ages 18 to 45). The researchers wanted to know how these bouts of exercise improved cognition. In other words, your feeling of mental sharpness.

The authors reviewed research on exercise bouts of various lengths. Quick bursts of intensity, called high-intensity interval training (HIIT) came out on top.

They specifically found that bouts of less than 30 minutes had bigger cognitive benefits than those longer than 30 minutes.

Your 60-minute walk can still do wonders for your mental and physical health. The study isn’t negating that. It’s just pointing out that short bursts of exercise have benefits, too.

What Are Some 3-Minute Workouts To Try?

Micro workouts can take various lengths of time, such as five minutes, seven minutes, or 10 minutes. How much activity you can pack into a three-minute exercise might surprise you.

There are a few different ways to approach the three-minute workout.

Do one activity for 3 minutes

You can do one activity that raises your heart rate but is sustainable for three minutes.

What do we mean by sustainable? Well, an all-out sprint for three minutes will undoubtedly raise your heart rate. But this is tough for most people.

Depending on what you have access to, you might try three minutes of:

• Dancing.
• Jogging in place or around your house.
• Jumping rope.
• Jumping on a trampoline.
• Treading water
• Walking up stairs.

Another idea is to do three planks, holding them for one minute each (or six for 30 seconds each).

Focus on one muscle group

You can do a short exercise routine with one focus. For example, you might put on a three-minute song and work your abs the whole time. Every 30 seconds, just keep alternating ab exercises such as:

• Crunches.
• Bicycle crunches.
• Left-oblique crunches.
• Right-oblique crunches.
• Flutter kicks.
• Tuck-ups.

Do a circuit

Try combining different exercises back to back for a quick full-body workout. This could look like:

• 50 jumping jacks.
• 30 seconds of mountain climbers.
• 10 jump squats.
• 10 push-ups.
• 30 seconds of alternating lunges.

You can adjust the reps and times to work for you.

3-minute exercises at work

Even if you’re at work and don’t have a mat or gym shoes, you can still get in some mini workouts. Try making a circuit with exercises such as:

• Calf raises next to your desk.
• Push-ups against your desk or a wall.
• Squats over your chair.
• Tricep dips using a chair (without wheels.)
• Wall sits (holding for 30 to 60 seconds).

How to Incorporate Micro Workouts Into Your Daily Life

You can do a micro workout whenever, wherever. That’s the beauty of short bursts of activity.

However, you might have more success with a bit of planning, such as:

• Consider what you like to do — Do you like to dance? To jog? To work with dumbbells? Or maybe you love taking your kids to the park. You can do a circuit of exercises using the jungle gym. Get creative!
• Try a variety of exercises — The beauty of quick bouts of exercise is that you don’t have to commit to a long workout. Now is the perfect time to try things you’ve always felt intimidated by, like burpees or pushups.
• Write down some goals — Think about what you want and why. Do you want more endurance? To strengthen your core to help with low back pain? Write down some specific things you will do. For example, “I will do three minutes of ab exercises each day to keep my back strong.”