The movement snacks trend is everywhere right now, and for once the science actually backs it. In this episode, Dr. Kelsy Vick breaks down what movement snacks really are, small one to five minute bites of movement sprinkled through your day, and why they matter so much for women, especially as we all head into a sitting heavy back to school and back to work season. She covers how breaking up prolonged sitting steadies blood sugar and drops blood pressure, why research suggests women get a bigger health payoff from less exercise than men, how strength snacks help protect muscle and bone heading into perimenopause and menopause, and how even gentle evening movement can help you sleep longer. You will walk away with a practical menu of movement snacks you can start today. Science backed, women centered, and refreshingly doable.

Links Mentioned in the episode:

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Have you guys ever heard

of movement snacks?

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I feel like it was a very common trend

during COVID times as people were

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transitioning from in-office work,

in-person school to remote work and

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realizing they were sitting a lot longer.

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So we started hearing more about

the term movement snacks and little

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exercise breaks throughout the day.

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And this is one of those things where

the science actually backs up this trend

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And the research is showing that

women might get more out of these tiny

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movement snack breaks compared to men,

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Which is why I wanted

to chat about it today.

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So welcome back to Wellness Fixes the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsey Vick, a board certified

orthopedic doctor of physical therapy

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and a pelvic floor physical therapist.

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And I realized as I was researching

for this episode that as a physical

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therapist, I oftentimes give movement

snacks in my exercise prescription.

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A lot of the exercise prescription that

I give patients has a similar timing

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that movement snacks do, where I would

like a patient to perform something

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throughout the day rather than all of

the repetitions at once and my reasoning

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for doing this sort of movement snack

prescription for each patient varies.

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A lot of the time it has more

to do with retraining some

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of that mind-muscle control

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and reforming and re-patterning

certain habits throughout the day.

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But the research behind movement

snacks for blood sugar regulation,

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mood, energy, sometimes even muscle

mass and strength is actually there

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So it's not just a physical therapy

exercise prescription dosing

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So let's define it simply.

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A movement snack or an exercise

snack is a short burst of movement,

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roughly one to five minutes

sprinkled in throughout your day

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Think a flight of stairs, a lap

around the office, a few air squats

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at your desk something to get your

muscles working and your heart rate up

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And as we head into probably one of the

most heavy sitting seasons of the year,

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as summer is winding down to a close and

people are going back to school, going

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back to a normal work routine, I felt

like this episode was necessary because

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not only are we possibly sitting more in

the back half of this year, but I also

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feel like some of us, myself included,

might struggle with exercise guilt or

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health and fitness guilt, especially as

our routines start to become a little bit

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more regimented, and we might struggle

with this change to fit fitness and

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health and wellness and movement in.

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And movement snacks have been

shown to be a great way to

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benefit you both now in the

present, but then also your

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long-term self in the future

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So scientists didn't invent the trend

of movement snacks, but they did

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validate it A large study of more

than twenty-five thousand people

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who did not formally exercise.

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They actually called them non-exercisers

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Found that little bursts of everyday

movement The kind that gets you

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slightly out of breath, so think

walking up a flight of stairs

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were strongly linked to living longer

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We'll get into that exact

study and those numbers later

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But the headline is that your body

counts the small stuff, not just the

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forty-five minute to hour-long workout

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So before we get into some of the science,

the research, the tactical ways to

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incorporate some of the movement snacks,

think about a time in your day that you

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might be able to incorporate slightly

more movement, whether that's parking

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further away, whether it's going to the

further coffee machine in the office,

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or going downstairs in your dorm to get

your coffee instead, especially after

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an intense bout of sitting and studying.

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Just think about how you might be able

to incorporate some of the movement

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snacks in your day, and which ones

might be easier snacks for you to grab

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So the most immediate payoff of movement

snacks is actually what they do to your

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blood sugar and your energy levels,

which are both closely linked together

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Blood sugar stability touches your

energy levels, your fatigue your

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cravings, your mood, your cycle, a lot

of different women's health symptoms

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Especially when we zoom in

through the lens of PMOS or PCOS.

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PMOS, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian

syndrome, is the new name for PCOS.

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And they're finding that the true

root cause of PMOS is a metabolic

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system issue, not a fertility issue.

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So if we're able to address the root

cause, that being the metabolic system

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and how our bodies are able to regulate

our metabolism and our blood sugar levels

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we might be able to help some of the other

symptoms that are downstream effects of

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that in conditions like PMOS So not only

are movement snacks just fun to talk about

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and fun to think about, but they're also

a great tool to have in the women's health

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toolbox, especially for my girls with PMOS

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And if you have any more questions on

PCOS or PMOS, we did a whole episode that

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I'll link below on the name change and why

that is a good thing for girls who have

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the condition and have those challenges

and have struggled to get the diagnosis.

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So I'll leave that episode below.

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We dive into it in great detail,

but just know that the benefits that

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movement snacks give our blood sugar

are amplified in girls with PMOS

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So since blood sugar is heavily tied to

things like energy level and fatigue,

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Those blood sugar levels don't just

help from a numerical standpoint

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But they can measurably lift your mood,

your energy levels, and cut fatigue,

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especially around that 2:00 PM slump

when a lot of us reach for caffeine

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So a movement snack might be the movement

answer to that 2:00 PM slump before you

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actually reach for that afternoon latte

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Meta-analyses of many studies show

that prolonged sitting with brief

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activity breaks Every 30 minutes

with two to five minutes of light

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to moderate movement meaningfully

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lowers the blood sugar and insulin

rise that comes after meals A study out

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of Columbia tested different dosages

of these movement snacks and found

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That a five-minute walk every

30 minutes lowered blood sugar

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spikes and dropped blood pressure

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by about four to five

millimeters of mercury.

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One of the lead researchers even said

that this change is similar to the

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change you might see in someone who

exercises consistently for six months

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And those same movement snack breaks that

benefited blood sugar levels and blood

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pressure also, of course, positively

affected mood and energy levels, too

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So every time you stand up and move your

muscles for a little bit, your muscles

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act as sponges, pulling the sugars

out of the blood and into the muscles,

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reducing the overall spikes that we get

in our blood sugar levels after meals

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and making it a little bit more of a

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Smaller, steadier blood sugar curve

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So on a heavy desk day, try finding a

cue, whether that's an alarm, whether

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that's seeing your reflection, something

that cues you to get up and move around.

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And if you can time one of those

movement snack breaks to be after

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a meal, your body, your blood sugar

levels, your mood, your energy,

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your fatigue will really thank you

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When it comes to movement,

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The research increasingly suggests

that women get a bigger return on a

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smaller investment compared to men

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A 2024 study done in the Journal of

the American College of Cardiology

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looked at more than 400,000 adults

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And found that men reached their maximum

survival benefit at three hundred minutes

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of moderate to vigorous physical activity

a week Women got that same maximum

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benefit at roughly 140 minutes per week

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Women also saw a larger

mortality risk reduction

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than men from the same amount of activity

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about a 24% lower

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risk of death for women who were

regularly active versus 15% for men

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The tiny bursts show a similar pattern.

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In the study I mentioned before, they call

it the VILPA or V-I-L-P-A study, vigorous

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intensity lifestyle physical activity.

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And as I said earlier, these were

non-exercisers -- completing about,

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I think on average, three point four

minutes of vigorous activity every day

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And it showed they had roughly a

forty-five percent lower risk of

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major cardiovascular events and a 67%

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lower risk of heart failure.

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On average, just 3.4

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minutes of these movement snacks a day

so these are observational studies,

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and we can't say this causes this,

but it's something interesting to note

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and more of a reason to give ourselves

grace, especially if we miss our typical

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morning workout and might need to rely

on some of these intermittent movement

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snacks throughout the day instead

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So we've talked a lot about cardiovascular

health and blood sugar, but movement

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snacks can also have a muscular system

benefit, especially when we're older

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Movement snacks aren't going to

necessarily change our aesthetics

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now, especially when we need

typically a greater stimulus to

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create some of those muscle changes.

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But we still can get the blood sugar

benefits and just general activation,

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balance, mind-muscle control benefits

from these movement snacks now

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But in studies of older adults,

the payoff is even greater.

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Brief resistance-based exercise snacks.

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Think chair sit-to-stands And simple

body weight moves done a couple of times

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throughout the day improved real-world

strength One program improved a 60-second

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sit to stand, which is a test that we do

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by about 31%.

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increased leg strength and even modestly

increased thigh muscle size With very

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high adherence because it was so doable

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Muscle responds to being challenged,

and if these movement snacks provide

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enough challenge for your muscle,

you might see some of the benefits

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of strength and resistance training.

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However, I feel like for most of

us, we might need a little bit more

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intensity when it comes to getting the

effects of true resistance training.

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So by no means replace your strength

training routine with these movement

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snacks, but they might be a nice addition

to your routine if you find yourself

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short on time throughout the day or are

just wanting to get up, move around, and

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help with energy, mood, and your overall

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fatigue levels throughout the day.

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But later on in our lives, when our

muscles don't necessarily have the

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efficiency that they do right now,

we might be able to get some of those

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strength training benefits just from

a few of those movement stacks a day

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So the whole point of a snack is

that it is quick and easy to grab.

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So let's talk about how to

build your actual snack menu

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The key thing is to match the snack to

the goal blood sugar and energy, reach

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for a walk, especially after meals

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heart and fitness, reach for something

that might ramp up the intensity a

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little bit, something like a stair walk

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For muscle, reach for more of those

muscle activation activities like

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bodyweight squats or desk push-ups

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There's also research showing that in

the evening hours, if you're someone

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that goes home and sits and watches

TV or scrolls, but also has difficulty

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sleeping, you might get benefit

from movement snacks in the evening,

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breaking up that prolonged sitting

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A 2024 study found That breaking

up evening sitting with just three

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minutes of light resistance movement

every half hour led people to sleep

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almost 28 minutes longer each night

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So think of the three to five movement

snacks that might benefit you or that

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you might want to incorporate, and if

you're like, I just want something to do

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to give me a little bit of a break from

work," maybe pick one from each category

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So as we go into this back half of

the year where we are a little bit

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more routine, people are returning to

normal work schedules and school, think

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of the movement snacks, especially

as things for your current present

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health and your immediate health for

things like your blood sugar levels,

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and then your subsequent energy levels

throughout the workday, but then also

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for your long-term health and all of the

mortality risk reduction, cardiovascular

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health benefits that you can get from

a movement snack, especially if you're

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someone who realizes that they sit - for

a lot longer than they'd like to.

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So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

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I hope you have learned something.

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I'll leave all of the links that

we mentioned below, and I will

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see you guys again on the next

episode of Wellness Big Sis the Pod.