Andrew Huberman· PhD
A good example of an exercise snack of this type would be to suddenly stand up from your desk and to do 100 jumping jacks. Now, depending on how fit you are and how fast you do those jumping jacks and how wide and tall you do those jumping jacks, meaning are you doing these little things where your hands don't actually meet and your hands like parting your legs just a little bit, or are you doing full jumping jacks where you're really jumping and setting your feet out as wide as you comfortably and safely can and then bring your hands together, it could take you anywhere from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. OK. So in the case of jumping jacks, you may end up doing this for 90 seconds. But the point is to simply do 100 jumping jacks. Or if that takes too long, you could even do just 25 or 50 jumping jacks. The point is that it's going to get you moving your muscles. It's going to get your heart rate up. Even if you're very, very fit if you're doing these fast enough and you're doing them with proper form, it's going to get your heart rate up. And then you're done. You can sit back down to your desk or you can continue to walk through the airport. Yes, I've done these in the airport. Typically not while walking toward my gate but at the gate. But occasionally I'm feeling lethargic, or I haven't had the opportunity to train that day, and perhaps I won't get the opportunity to train, so I'll do something like 100 jumping jacks while facing the window so it feels a little less awkward facing people while you're doing them. And of course, you don't have to do jumping jacks. And equally effective type of exercise snack is to find a stairwell and to simply go up that stairwell as fast as you safely can for 20 to 30 seconds. So perhaps just find the bottom of a stairwell and go up that stairwell as quickly as you can. And perhaps go down as quickly as you can. And just keep doing that for about 20 to 40 seconds, and then you're essentially done.