"Sure, mini-workouts are great for beginners or busy people who need to be exercise guerillas to sneak exercise in when they can. But if you want to change the way you look, you'll have to be more aggressive," says Richard Cotton, spokesman for the American Council on Exercise and exercise physiologist.

Mini-workouts help you build the same aerobic capacity as full-length sessions, so they are perfect for exercise virgins. If you've been around the exercise track before, Cotton recommends choosing a more challenging get-fit plan. "If you want to lose weight, you can break up your aerobic session, but you need to increase the amount of time to 45 minutes, four to six times a week. Plus you need to add strength training at least two times a week, to increase or maintain muscle mass," advises Cotton.

When it comes to increasing endurance, Cotton recommends following the principle of specificity: "If you want to run for longer distances, you need to train by running longer distances. Short bursts of exercise may be great if you want to maintain a base level of fitness and optimize health, but not if you want to lose weight or increase your level of fitness," says Cotton.

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