Daily Mail
- 15 minutes of vigorous activity per week is enough to slash risk of death by 18%
- Finding is from an Australian study of 70,000 Britons were tracked for 7 years
- Authors say it shows the merits of even tiny amounts of exercise done every day
- Even walking up the stairs counts as a ‘vigorous activity’ according to the NHS
Just two minutes of vigorous exercise each day may be enough to cut your risk of dying young, research suggests.
And experts say you don’t even have to do anything too intense.
Simply walking up the stairs, running round the garden or skipping is enough, they claim.
University of Sydney scientists analysed data from 70,000-plus Britons, tracking their exercise levels for a week and their subsequent health over the next seven years.
Results showed people who did just 15 minutes of vigorous activity per week — or 2m 9s a day — were 18 per cent less likely to die within the study period.
This was compared to those who did just two minutes per week.
Lead author Dr Matthew Ahmadi said: ‘The results indicate accumulating vigorous activity in short bouts across the week can help us live longer.
‘Given that lack of time is the most commonly reported barrier to regular physical activity, accruing small amounts sporadically during the day may be a particularly attractive option for busy people.’
NHS guidelines suggest 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, skipping and walking up stairs.
Each participant in the study, who were in their 60s, on average, and split almost evenly in terms of sex, wore a wrist-mounted activity tracker for a full week to gauge their total vigorous activity time.
This data was then compared against rates of death or illnesses such as heart disease or cancer…
