Just TWO MINUTES of bursts of exercise a day are enough to prevent premature death
- 15 minutes of vigorous activity per week is enough to reduce the risk of death by 18%
- The finding comes from an Australian study of 70,000 Britons who were tracked for 7 years.
- The authors say it shows the merits of even small amounts of exercise done every day.
- Even climbing the stairs counts as ‘vigorous activity’ according to the NHS
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Just two minutes of vigorous exercise each day may be enough to reduce the risk of dying young, research suggests.
And experts say you don’t even have to do anything too intense.
Simply climbing the stairs, running around the garden or jumping is enough, they say.
Even a little exercise goes a long way, and scientists say that just two minutes of vigorous exercise per day could help reduce the risk of death by almost a fifth.
Scientists at the University of Sydney analyzed data from more than 70,000 Britons, tracking their exercise levels for one week and their subsequent health for the next seven years.
The results showed that people who did just 15 minutes of vigorous activity a week, or 2 minutes and 9 seconds a day, were 18 percent less likely to die during the study period.
This was compared to those who did just two minutes per week.
Lead author Dr Matthew Ahmadi said: “The results suggest that piling up vigorous activity in short bursts throughout the week may help us live longer.”
“Since lack of time is the most commonly reported barrier to regular physical activity, accumulating small amounts sporadically throughout the day may be a particularly attractive option for busy people.”
NHS guidelines suggest that adults should get 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week spread over four to five days.
Examples of vigorous exercise include running, swimming, jumping, and climbing stairs.
Each participant in the study, who was on average 60 years old and roughly evenly split in terms of gender, wore a wrist-mounted activity tracker for a full week to measure their total activity. vigorous activity time.
This data was then compared to rates of death or illnesses such as heart disease or cancer.
Results published in the european journal of the heart show that people who did not do vigorous activity had an overall 4 percent risk of dying in the next five years.
More than 42 million adults in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2040, according to projections by Cancer Research UK
This risk was cut in half to just 2 percent for those doing 10 minutes a week and just 1 percent among those doing an hour a week.
But the scientists say the most interesting finding was about the smallest bouts of vigorous activity per day.
However, more was even better.
For example, those who did it with those who did 53 minutes a week, about seven and a half minutes a day, had a 36% lower chance of dying in five years, compared to those who did two minutes a week.
The health benefits of regular exercise have been well established for decades.
Staying fit can prevent obesity and its side effects on health, such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. It can also improve bone strength and mental well-being.
However, a study by Essex researchers in May suggested that only one in 20 adults in England gets the recommended amount of exercise per week.
Lack of exercise, combined with unhealthy diets, has been blamed for the growing obesity epidemic in the UK.
The most recent data shows that 64 percent of adults are overweight, and more of us are projected to gain weight in the future.
Obesity is not only increasing British waistlines but also health care costs, with the NHS spending an estimated £6.1bn on treating weight-related illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers between 2014 and 2015.
In the US, an estimated 73.6% of adults are overweight or obese.
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