Exercising Less Than 20 Minutes A Day Linked To Shorter Lifespan

Editor: Philip Ragner | Tactical Investor

Even Light Exercise Can Help You Live Longer

In the report, researchers looked at about 1,180 men — average age, 78 — who agreed to wear devices that measured their movements for seven days. They were followed for about five years. The researchers found that the overall volume of exercise, not necessarily how long or how hard someone exercised in a session, mattered most for longevity.

The men in the study didn’t even need to exercise for long periods of time to experience positive results. Sporadic bouts of exercise throughout the day, even if each bout was under 10 minutes, had similar benefits to lifespan as exercising more than 10 minutes at a time. This method seemed to fit into men’s lives, too; 66% of the men in the study were able to meet their weekly recommended exercise if they did it in shorter bursts.

Every 30 minutes of light intensity activity per day — like going on a walk or gardening — was linked to a 17% lower risk of early death in the study. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity had an even stronger link to a longer life: doing it was associated with a 33% reduction in death risk for every 30 minutes of exercise. However, the fact that light exercise still appeared to have a notable longevity benefit is important, the study authors write. Full Story

Exercising Less Than 20 Minutes A Day Linked To Shorter Lifespan

“For about 30 years, guidelines have suggested that moderate-to-vigorous activity could provide health benefits, but only if you sustained the activity for 10 minutes or more,” he said. “That flies in the face of public health recommendations, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and parking farther from your destination. Those don’t take 10 minutes, so why were they recommended?”

In his new study titled “Moderate‐ to‐Vigorous Physical Activity and All‐Cause Mortality: Do Bouts Matter?”, Kraus and researchers from the National Cancer Institute investigated how much the duration of exercise matters for our long-term health. The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association on March 22.

The researchers examined 4,840 U.S. adults who were 40 years and older during 2003-2006 using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHNES). For up to a week, participants wore devices called accelerometers which could track how often they moved and determine how long they exercised. The researchers used the national database to find out how many of the survey participants were still alive in 2011, revealing 700 recorded deaths. Full Story

Even Light Exercise Can Help You Live Longer

Exercising Less Than 20 Minutes A Day Linked To Shorter Lifespan

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