One of the largest challenges for regular people is finding 45-90 minutes to exercise in the first place. Research on shortening the length of time required for effective exercises is a worthwhile pursuit.
And the other thing is to keep focused for 45-90min on a bicycle in a gym, with nothing else to watch than wrestling and Justin Bieber in loop. That's where the real effort is.
That's why it's better to play sports. Exercise is more enjoyable when it's competitive. Don't punish yourself with exercise, reward yourself with play.
Or find a sport and find exercises to improve it. That's what I did. Soccer is fun, we often lose, but I love my team. We're pretty much considered the best sportsmen in our league (everyone respects us and enjoys playing with us because we treat everyone well, whether we're winning or losing). I took up running so I could play better.
I took up BJJ (individual rather than team sport) as a way to fill my evenings, and to try to get back into martial arts. I've taken up a strength training (bodyweight) as a way to improve myself there.
The exercise isn't always fun, but it has a purpose beyond "run faster" or "lift more" (though those are fine goals as well, just insufficient motivators for me).
Yeah, I have been doing BJJ for 8 years and just got my black belt. Recently started kickboxing too. On the side I jog and lift weights and do a handful of other sports for fun. I think of it as "training" as opposed to "exercise".
Congrats. I'm still a white belt and will probably remain one. They go to a gym up in Atlanta when they want to test and award belts, on a Saturday, and it almost always coincides with a soccer game. Priorities. :)
I might accept that but it feels like a cheating shortcut somehow.
A major part of long distance running (10k+) is the mental aspect.
You are never, ever, going to get the mental endurance and discipline to run fast for distance by running for a short period of time, no matter how hard.
Training for long distance running is not a goal most people have. Discussions about endurance training and improving health of "normal" people are not the same discussion.
This kind of research allows people to think working out for only a couple minutes is okay if you do it hard.
I think many people could easily train to do 5k and then 10k and get many benefits. Our very evolution came about from persistence hunting which means many people should have the genetics for endurance and far fewer for intensity (speed).