Why you should take the stairs: A few minutes of 'incidental' exercise may cut heart attack risks in half, study finds

Don’t have time to get to the gym? You’re certainly not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than a quarter of Americans don’t get any physical activity outside of work. But you might be surprised by the exercise snacks hidden in your daily routines — and their benefits. Even a couple of minutes spent carrying a heavy bag of groceries or taking the stairs instead of the elevator could cut your chances of having a heart attack by half, a new study suggests.

Here’s what to know about incidental exercise, its benefits and how to sneak a little bit of exercise into your everyday chores and activities.

What the study found

The researchers from the University of Sydney looked at data on more than 13,000 women and 9,000 men, including whether they had heart attacks or other cardiovascular issues and how many minutes they got of “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” — in other words, exercise that happens incidentally throughout the day, including walking up stairs or walking your dog. Researchers compared the rate of major cardiovascular events — such as heart attacks or heart failure — over the course of eight years among people who reported no exercise at all with those who said they didn’t go to the gym or intentionally exercise but did get some of this incidental exercise.

For women who got between one-and-a-half and four minutes of incidental exercise, the risks of heart attacks and other severe cardiovascular problems were nearly 50% lower compared to those who said they never did these kinds of activities. In fact, even women who spent as little as 1.2 to 1.6 minutes on stair-climbing or elbow-grease chores a day saw their risks lower by 30%.

But men didn’t see the same benefits. Those who got 5.6 minutes of daily incidental activity only saw a 16% reduction in their major cardiovascular event risks compared to those who reported doing no exercise, incidental or otherwise. The researchers aren’t sure why this is.

How simple chores can help: ‘Something is better than nothing’

To be clear, the benefits of activities like taking the stairs pale in comparison to routine, intentional exercise, which you should do for at least 150 minutes a week, plus two days of strength-building workouts, according to the CDC. The study also didn’t compare heart attack and heart failure risks among people who did exercise regularly versus those whose only physical activity was incidental.

However, “doing something is likely better than nothing is the take-home message about incidental exercise,” Dr. Luke Laffin, a co-director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Blood Pressure Disorders, tells Yahoo Life. “Among people that do not do any regular exercise, even climbing stairs can be helpful. That being said, individuals that do regular exercise show significantly lower rates of cardiovascular disease — among other medical problems — than those that do not do any regular exercise.”

Even some brief bursts of activity throughout the day can have some cardiovascular benefits, Dr. Bradley Serwer, an interventional cardiologist and chief medical officer at VitalSolution, tells Yahoo Life. “While incidental exercise may not be long in duration or intense, it does keep a person active, burns calories and may keep some people from getting less stiff,” he says.

According to Laffin, any activity that raises the heart rate and puts a healthy bit of aerobic stress on the body also benefits heart health by relieving stress, widening the blood vessels and helping to maintain healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Serwer says the key to deriving protective effects from incidental exercise is to do it frequently.

Ways to work incidental exercise into your day

Odds are good that you’re already getting some incidental exercise without knowing it, but you can always look for opportunities to add more, experts say. “Incidental exercise is recommended for everyone, especially those that have long periods of inactivity throughout the day,” says Serwer. He adds that it’s especially important to get up and move around periodically if you work at a desk all day. “A sedentary lifestyle has been deemed the new smoking and is very detrimental to your overall health,” he notes.

One of the easiest ways to get a decent workout during your daily activities is to take the stairs instead of an elevator, which Serwer highly recommends. But experts say there’s plenty you can do to add incidental exercise to your day, even if you live in a single-level home, including:

• Parking further from a store’s entrance so you get a longer walk.

• Carrying your groceries rather than wheeling them in a cart (double up by doing this and choosing a more distant parking spot).

• Raking leaves or shoveling snow are great chores to get your heart pumping. Just be careful to take breaks, especially in cold weather.

• Give your floors a good scrub.

• Take your dog for a walk instead of just letting them out in the yard.

• Walk to shops or other destinations when you can, instead of driving.

• Play with your kids.

• Go for a walk while you take meetings (either in person or over the phone).

• Work in the garden.

Remember that frequency is key, so try to get even a few minutes of one of these activities into each day.

Finally, be aware that incidental exercise isn’t a replacement for intentional exercise. “Everyone should do some degree of regular exercise to reduce their risk of future cardiovascular disease,” says Laffin. “However, if there are weeks that you can’t get to the gym or exercise — because, let’s face it, life happens — then if we are active in our daily life we are getting some benefit from a cardiovascular perspective.”