Less than 6 Minutes of Vigorous Activity a Day Cuts Risk of Heart Attacks and Strokes, Study Says
The expectation that we can all train for upwards of an hour a day is one of the reasons that many people end up doing nothing at all. It can feel like an overwhelming amount of time and, even if the prescribed movement is a home workout or a walk, it still puts plenty of people off.
It's why fast-paced workout methods such as HIIT and other short-burst movements have become so popular over the recent years, promising the same muscle-building and life-extending results in a fraction of the time.
But still, digging out your dumbbells and carving out time in the day to train can feel like a massive burden, and many end up opting to do nothing, instead. But what if you didn't needn't need to smash a gym workout or an at home HIIT session to reap at least some of the rewards of exercise?
A new study suggests that simple, vigorous movement, throughout the day can help to improve your health outcomes, even on days you can't fit in a gym session . Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, it found that 'vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity' (VILPA), meaning intense physical activity performed in very short bouts that are embedded into daily life, cuts the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The Study
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women globally, and high-intensity training has long been shown as a good way to prevent way non-fatal heart events as well as dying from heart problems, especially compared to lower-intensity exercise.
Researchers noticed that, despite these advantages, HIIT isn't feasible or appealing to most middle-aged adults. However, they said that high-intensity bursts of movement in life - things like walking up the stairs or running for the bus - could elicit the same impact as doing burpees and jump lunges in your living room.
So they set up a study that looked at how VILPA impacted major adverse cardiovascular events (including heart attacks, death from cardiac events, incident myocardial infarction, heart failure and stroke).
They had 22,368 non-exercisers (those who reported no voluntary exercise, and no more than one walk during leisure time) wear a fitness tracker for a week, then monitored them for 7.9 years after to see how many suffered cardiac events, including death as a result of heart health, incidences of elevated myocardial infarction and heart failure.
The Results
Among the 13,018 women and 9350 men who participated, there were 331 and 488 major cardiac events, respectively.
The median daily VILPA among participants was 3.4 minutes for women and 5.6 minutes for men.
These median doses were associated with a 45% reduced risk of major cardiac events in women and a 16% risk reduction for men.
Women who did 3.4 minutes of VILPA also reduced their heart failure risk by 67% and for men who did 5.6 minutes, it was reduced by 39%.
Overall, there was a dose-response association, meaning the fewer minutes of VILPA, the higher the risk of cardiac events, and the more VILPA was done, the lower the risk.
The dose-response was stronger in women, despite them spending less time doing VILPA and burning the same amount of calories during activity as men.
Average relative intensity during VILPA (as a percentage of their VO2 max) was higher in women (83.2%) than men (70.5%).
What This Means For Us
Breaking down all of those stats, the biggest takeaway is that you don't need necessarily need to go to the gym for an hour to get many of the health benefits associated with training. Making sure to get your heart rate very high for short amounts of time - ideally around or over 5.6 minutes a day - is good for you (and doesn't have to involve burpees).
Another key thing we can learn from this is that in general we now perform fewer physically demanding tasks throughout daily life, which could impact our long-term health. In fact, the highest levels of exertion men in this study reached throughout their days wouldn't be classed as high intensity at all, according to definitions of HIIT protocols.
The more activity they did, the better it was for their heart - there's no question about that. But simply exerting yourself slightly more, more often (walking a bit faster up the stairs, or putting more oomph into chasing your dog around the park) could lead to seriously impressive results for your cardiovascular health.
The Bottom Line
If you hate the gym or really don't have time to bust out a dumbbell HIIT session, don't worry. Climbing the stairs, carrying heavy shopping, playing with your kids or pets and doing intense housework or gardening are all examples of VILPA that are beneficial for your heart.
Ideally, you should do these activities pretty hard - harder than you might naturally want to - and have them last for a total of 5.6 minutes a day or more. We'll meet you at the bottom of the staircase.
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