113:: Movement snacks: the girl math of exercise

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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.

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