Intermittent short bursts of exercise dramatically improve your health

activities like walking, cycling, and swimming that use the body’s big muscles repeatedly and rhythmically are referred to as aerobic activities. Engaging in aerobic exercise raises your body’s oxygen intake and heart rate while lowering your chance of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease.

The official recommendations state that in order to achieve the best possible health outcomes, 75–150 minutes of vigorous physical activity (VPA) or 150–300 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical exercise (walking, jogging, swimming) per week are required. These recommendations are primarily based on surveys of participants’ reports of their exercise activity. Nevertheless, if you’re using your neighborhood gym, this will require an hour of daily time. Many people quit aerobic fitness programs early because they find it extremely difficult to stick with the regimen.

Recent research, however, has shown that accumulative intermittent brief bouts of VPA (two minutes), which are simple to incorporate into even the busiest schedules, greatly improve health. Chuck Dinerstein has provided a summary of this work in the American Council on Science and Health.

Since ancient times, people have understood the connection between physical activity and overall health: “God gave man two tools to succeed in life: education and physical activity.” Plato once said, “Every human being’s good condition is destroyed by inactivity, but movement and deliberate physical exercise can save and preserve it.”

The classic research of Ralph Paffenbarger and Jeremy Morris from the 1950s onwards reported epidemiological data linking physical activity levels to death. Morris found that compared to bus drivers, London bus conductors had a decreased incidence of coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death. The explanation for the discrepancy was that conductors had higher amounts of physical exercise. In the 1970s, Paffenbarger and colleagues found an inverse link between physical exercise and the risk of heart disease and all-cause death.

The most current comprehensive report on the positive health consequences of brief, sporadic VPA bouts was published in the European Heart Journal by M. Ahmadi and colleagues. The scientists came to the conclusion that VPAs of 15-20 minutes per week, with each VPA lasting two minutes, are linked to a mortality rate that is 16–40% lower. They also found that mortality rates can be further decreased by up to 50–57 minutes of VPA per week. The study included 103,000 participants from the UK Biobank between the ages of 40 and 69. The researchers employed accelerometer data to precisely assess physical activity and drew on lifestyle variables, incidence, and death data from cardiovascular disease and cancer across a six-year period.

How can adhering to the most recent VPA recommendations result in a significant reduction (triple) in the amount of time required to lower the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease by an amount comparable to what can be achieved by following the official standard guidelines of 75–150 minutes of vigorous exercise per week? Was the research that supported the recommended practices incorrect?

Dinerstein disagrees, arguing that the disparity is more likely to be explained by the various methods used in the various research to quantify physical activity. The measurements of activity based on self-reported exercise are a major component of the standard guidelines. The reports may lack precision due to memory lapses, personal prejudice toward the intensity of the exercise, and/or an inclination to appear well. This new study used accelerometer data, which is far more accurate in quantifying exertions.

Of course, further studies in this area are needed to validate these most recent findings regarding the beneficial benefits on health of extremely brief, sporadic, intense exercise sessions. However, this discovery marks the most significant and exciting health news to be announced in a very long time, if these results hold up, which I believe they will. It will imply that no one will have an excuse for not exercising enough to significantly increase their chances of being in excellent health.

I find it astounding that these significantly lower health risks can be attained with such small weekly activity totals, which are earned in quick bursts. These quick workouts might be incorporated into any person’s regular schedule with ease; just go for a few minutes’ brisk walk or quickly ascend two flights of stairs, for example. I now walk briskly for five minutes several times a day in my garden.

The most publicized of these recent findings should be given. These new VPA recommendations hold great potential for better public health because they are so easily attainable by practically everyone.