Everyday activities count as exercise, but intensity matters
Everyone's movements were tracked for one week, and the results were compared with their health status eight years later
Is it good for your health to do quick bursts of everyday activities?
According to an article by Harvard Health, wrist activity trackers were utilized by researchers to monitor the daily activities of over 25,000 individuals aged 42 to 78, who did not engage in formal exercise.
Activities were defined as any continuous movement done at a faster-than-normal pace: for example, taking stairs, mopping the floor, gardening, and playing energetically with children.
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Everyone's movements were tracked for one week, and the results were compared with their health status eight years later.
The study revealed that individuals engaging in several short bouts of daily activities, each lasting from one to 10 minutes (totaling approximately 28 minutes per day), had a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes compared to those with activity durations of less than a minute. (No statistical advantage was observed for activity periods longer than 10 minutes.)
Intensity was key, as the more vigorous the activity, the greater the benefit. However, the results suggested you don't need to maintain a high intensity all the time.
The researchers found that doing at least 15% (about 10 seconds for every minute) at a vigorous level and the rest at a moderate level was enough.
