‘Just one intense workout a week as effective as gyming everyday’

But Jan Helgerud,of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,reckons that the healthy formula can work for everyone,reports The Daily Express.

The expert recommends four four-minute sessions of hard cycling or sprinting with a three-minute rest in between.

“High-intensity interval training is twice as effective as normal exercise,” he said. “This is like finding a new pill that works twice as well. We should immediately throw out the old way of exercising.”

In the study,when compared with traditional exercise,such as jogging,it was found that interval training doubled endurance,improved strength by more than 10 per cent and speed by at least five per cent.