It turns out you don’t need to spend an hour sweating it out at a gym. A new study proves it doesn't matter whether you exercise in long blocks or short bursts throughout the day, both will actually help you to live longer.
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina tracked almost 5,000 middle-aged adults for four years. They debunked the idea that your workouts need to be lengthy in order to ward off illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.
I’ve been advocating for this for quite some time and yes, small bouts of movement and exercise incorporated into your daily life can add up to big rewards.
Many of you live busy lifestyles and can’t find time for long workout sessions. So it’s great to know that getting in short bursts of physical activity like climbing stairs or taking walks counts towards living longer.
It doesn’t matter if the movement or activity is 1 minute or 30 minutes. What’s key here is that it’s moderate or vigorous in intensity.
So that means you need to be moving at a pace that makes it’s hard for you to talk and have a conversation. Jogging would be considered vigorous activity for most people.
The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week in order to gain substantial health benefits.
So yes you should still aim to get in that total amount of movement. In fact the researchers found 30 minutes every day will help to reduce the risk of an early death.
Participants in the study who got 60 minutes throughout the day lowered their risk of death by 57 percent. While those who got less than 20 minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise a day were more likely to die prematurely.
So it’s important to keep track of how much exercise you’re getting.
You might want to consider a tracking device to keep tabs on how much activity you’re actually accumulating as you go about your day.
