Do I really only need “Just 10 minutes exercise a week”?

Obviously headlines like this are designed to be controversial and get readers to click through. What the nine-year observational study of 88,000 US adults aged between 40-85 found was that even short periods of low-intensity activity can “have a meaningful impact on health”. In fact, “virtually any amount of exercise reduced the risks of dying of cardiovascular disease, cancer or any other cause”. However, what the headline doesn’t tell you is that the more you exercise the greater the reductions in risk. 

So, for an 18% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or 14% lower risk of dying from cancer than your sedentary counterparts between 10-59 minutes a week of light-to-moderate exercise was enough. Increase that to between 60-149 minutes per week though and you have 22% less risk of early death, 150-299 minutes of exercise per week was 31% less risk and if you manage to fit in 3 hours of light-to-moderate exercise a day your risk of dying early decreased by 46%.

Now most of us would probably struggle to devote 3 hours a day everyday to exercise BUT – every little bit counts and it is cumulative! Remember we aren’t talking high intensity exercise. Light-to-moderate would include – taking the stairs, gardening, hanging washing, house work, walking the dog, collecting the mail – basically anything that requires movement is good for you.

So let’s get moving!

Link to Time article: Click Here