Intervals are looking to be the closest thing to a silver bullet you’ll find in exercise. Studies in the last few years have documented a growing body of evidence that short-term, high-intensity effort gives amazing bang for the buck, and a new one from McMaster University in Canada shows that just 20 minutes of training can have huge benefits. Subjects rode exercise bikes at 90 percent of max heart rate for one minute, easy for one minute, and then hard again for a total of 10 for each intensity. “Despite the small time commitment of this modified HIIT program, after several weeks of practicing it, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness,” writes the NY Times.

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