How Micro Workouts Can Help You be More Active

In the past, I have introduced you to the concept of movement snacks as a way to break up your sedentary day by adding in some brief, but meaningful, movements breaks. Well, today we are going to take a deeper look into something similar. With the help of our special guest, we're going to learn all about a similar concept called micro workouts. 

My guest on this episode is Brad Kearns, a New York Times bestselling author, Guinness World Record-setting professional speed golfer, #1 ranked USA age 55-59 high jumper, and former US national champion and #3 world-ranked professional triathlete. He hosts the B.rad podcast, covering healthy living, peak performance, and personal growth with his carefree style and lively sense of humor. 

Micro workouts

In recent years, Brad says that micro workouts have quickly become one of his favorite daily activities. Brad believes that this fantastic fitness concept, which consists of explosive feats of strength that are both efficient and easy to perform, has allowed him to hit his number one goal of being more active in daily life.

The following is a transcript of our conversation, which has been edited for clarity. But if you want to hear the enthusiasm and joy in Brad’s voice as he shares his micro workout secrets, I suggest you push the play button on the audio player at the top of this page. 

Interview with Brad Kearns

Brock Armstrong

In your opinion, or your estimation, or what you've written in your Two Meals a Day book, what exactly is a micro workout?

Brad Kearns

Well, Brock, it's pretty easy to conceive. It's a brief burst of physical effort. Ideally, it would be something that applies resistance to your muscles and taxes your cardiovascular system—something explosive and challenging—and then you go back to your busy day.

So, it's kind of reframing our typical perspective about a workout being the thing you do when you get in your car and you drive down to the gym and look for a parking space and check in with your tag and get a towel. And it's this big ordeal. And so I think it opens up the concept of living a fit, active lifestyle to more people. And it's more approachable and doable because, at any time, you can drop for a set of 20 deep squats in your work cubicle and then get right back to work, and it's a wonderful fitness benefit. We can talk about all the benefits.

Brock

A lot of people that I talk to, and a lot of people that come to me for coaching, are always saying things like "You know, I don't have time to get to the gym"...

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