3 minutes vs. 90 minutes: Which workout is better for your health?

Three minutes of intense exercise may have more beneficial impacts on our physiology and health than 90 minutes of more moderate exertion.

That idea could sound far-fetched. But in a groundbreaking new study published in August in Cell Reports Medicine, scientists found that the blood of people who completed three minutes’ worth of all-out exercise — in 30-second bursts over the course of 23 minutes — teemed afterward with far more molecules associated with health improvements than the blood of people who rode bikes relatively moderately for an hour and a half.