With only four minutes of exercise a day, middle-age women might reduce their risk of cardiovascular problems by nearly half. It’s the latest discovery from University of Sydney researchers, whose study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“We found that a minimum of 1.5 minutes to an average of four minutes of daily vigorous physical activity, completed in short bursts lasting up to one minute, were associated with improved cardiovascular health outcomes in middle-aged women who do no structured exercise,” lead author professor Emmanuel Stamatakis said.
“Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” refers to brief periods of intense activity incorporated into everyday life, ranging from climbing stairs to carrying in bags of groceries. University of Sydney researchers analyzed two years of physical activity tracker data from 22,368 participants ages 40 through 79 to discover women benefited from such activity more than men do.
“Importantly, the beneficial associations we observed were in women who committed to short bursts of (vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity) almost daily,” Stamatakis said. “This highlights the importance of habit formation, which is not always easy. (Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity) should not be seen as a quick fix — there are no magic bullets for health. But our results show that even a little bit higher-intensity activity can help.”
