If you struggle to find time for the gym, you may be able to reap some benefits of exercise in just minutes a day, new research suggests.
Short, vigorous activities in your daily routine — like power walking, intense housecleaning, or playing with kids or pets — may significantly reduce your risk of dying from cancer or heart disease, according to a study published December 8 in Nature Medicine.
Researchers from the University of Sydney looked at data from 25,241 UK residents who were self-described "non-exercisers" over seven years of follow-up, to analyze their habits and health outcomes.
They found that without going to the gym, some participants still got a daily dose of exercise in the form of brief, strenuous actions like running to catch a bus, taking the stairs, or doing high-energy chores.
Despite being just one to two minutes at a time, the short activities were linked to similar health benefits as more structured exercise. Typical exercise recommendations call for 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity.
But as little as 4 to 6 minutes a day of vigorous activity (spread out across 3 sessions) was linked to up to 49% lower risk of dying from heart disease and up to 40% lower risk of dying from any cause during the study.
More activity was even better, researchers noted. Up to 11 short sessions per day was linked to 65% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and 49 lower risk of dying from cancer, compared to people who didn't do any vigorous activity.
A caveat to the research is that it doesn't directly show that short bursts of movement cause better health outcomes, but does indicate a connection.
More research is needed, but the study results suggest that getting more movement in your daily routine may be a useful strategy for improving your health, even if you can't make it to the gym, according to the researchers.
"A few very short bouts totaling three to four minutes a day could go a long way, and there are many daily activities that can be tweaked to raise your heart rate for a minute or so," Emmanuel Stamatakis, lead author of the study and professor of physical activity, lifestyle, and population health at the University of Sydney, said in a press release.
Exercise is one of the best strategies for better health, and every little bit counts
Extensive previous evidence suggests exercise offers a wealth of benefits, including better mental health, lower risk of disease, and slower physical and cognitive decline as we age. Both aerobic exercise (cardio) and resistance training such as lifting weights have been show to boost health.
Studying smaller doses of exercise, especially outside the gym, could help bring the benefits of fitness to people without the time, money, or access to keep up with other workout routines, according to the study authors.
"Upping the intensity of daily activities requires no time commitment, no preparation, no club memberships, no special skills. It simply involves stepping up the pace while walking or doing the housework with a bit more energy," Stamatakis said.
