9 Science Approved Life Hacks To Make Everything Better

3. Cut Your Gym Time, Up The Intensity

Unless you're one of those weird people who actually likes spending hours in the gym, you'll be pleased to know that you can get the bod you want without spending hours slaving over a hot treadmill. I am, of course, talking about High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short. A HIIT workout basically consists of bursts of high-intensity cardiovascular (e.g. sprints), followed by a short rest period. For example, a two minute sprint, working at 90% capacity, followed by a minute's rest, repeated 10 times. The maths-minded amongst you will have noticed that this can get the whole ordeal over within 30 minutes, but with all the benefits of a much longer steady-state workout. Not only is HIIT as effective in less time, but some meta-analyses have found that its actually better for you in some areas as it has been found to lower insulin resistance, cutting the risk of diabetes. Not bad for 20 minutes on a treadmill.* *more than once, obviously, it's not a miracle cure.