Behind The Mic With Joe Mathieu: 12 Minutes Of Exercise To Stay Fit?

BOSTON (CBS) - You've got to love "health" stories like these.

Chocolate is good for you. Red wine is healthy. Coffee helps your heart.

And now we learn from a study in Norway that exercise is overrated.

To be clear – I am not a fitness expert. I don't even play one on TV.

But researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have found that just 12 minutes of exercise per week has the same impact as 90 minutes of running.

Seriously.

Now you can't just do a 12 minute workout and call it a week. They say it's best if you do three sessions of intense exercise, 4 minutes each, over the course of the week. Intense enough to get your heart rate to 90-percent capacity.

They say this regiment helped to boost people's blood-oxygen levels and lower their blood pressure.

Let's hear it for the Norwegians!

But here's the problem.

You won't really see any benefits – certainly in terms of weight loss – if you're already active.

The researchers in this case studied people who were described as sedentary, overweight men.

Not shocking they felt the benefits of a brief workout.

Now if we could only get a report showing the health benefits of ice cream.

You can follow Joe on Twitter @JoeMathieuWBZ.