Bite Sized Bursts of Vigorous Activity Will Lengthen Your Life

In the 1980s, Dr. Henry Solomon, a New York cardiologist, argued in his book The Exercise Myth that exercise won’t make you healthy or promote longevity. While that may be music to the ears of couch potatoes everywhere, his opinion has been widely discredited by today’s modern medical research.

However, he might be right in the sense that pounding the streets and running for miles, which was popular even back then (remember Jim Fixx? More on him in a minute…) isn’t necessary. What’s more important is to engage in activities that raise the heart rate. And fortunately, that can be achieved in lots of everyday ways.

Jim Fixx has been called the father of running. He wrote the book The Complete Book of Running in 1977 and just seven years later, he died of a heart attack while jogging at age 52. While the anti-exercise group points to Fixx as a cautionary tale, they fail to mention that he had a genetic predisposition for heart problems—including a congenitally enlarged heart— and smoked two packs a day for years.

Today, whether people like it or not, most of the world has accepted the volumes of research that show exercise is important for wellbeing. However, four out of five middle-aged adults still don’t engage in regular exercise. Time and energy are two big reasons they’ve reported for putting off getting fit. And it begs the question…

How much exercise does it take to be physically fit and long-lived?

We’ve tackled this topic plenty in the past. According to a study we reported on previously, just 15 minutes a week of vigorous activity led to lower death from any cause by 16 to 18 percent. Add another five minutes of activity and death from heart disease is cut by 40 percent. That’s right, 20 minutes of weekly activity can save you from heart disease.

It certainly looks like long bouts of regular exercise may not be necessary for longevity, but the international researchers who performed the initial study wanted to follow up to gain more clarity. Here’s what they found…

This time the research team led by the University of Sydney, Australia, analyzed data on 25,241 men and women with an average age of 62 who didn’t take part in any exercise or sport. All wore an accelerometer on their wrist for seven days to track their physical activity patterns down to a ten-second time window.

The team followed participants for almost eight years to see how the length of activity – under 1 minute, 1 to 3 minutes, 3 to 5 minutes, 5 to 10 minutes – affected major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) such as heart attack and stroke, as well as mortality.

As little as one to three minutes increased longevity

Compared to those whose daily activity levels were under a minute, MACE risk was lowered by 29 percent for 1 to 3 minutes, 38 percent for 3 to 5 minutes and 41 percent for 5 to 10 minutes. For mortality, the equivalent results were 34 percent, 44 percent, and 52 percent. These results show that just a couple of minutes consistently devoted to some moderate to vigorous activity lowers the risk of MACE by 29 percent and death by 44 percent. That’s a shockingly small amount of activity for a big health benefit-- we’ve all got time for that!

And it’s only the beginning…

The researchers found the higher the percentage of vigorous activity within each activity session the better. For instance, those who huffed and puffed for at least 15 percent of their activity session (roughly 10 seconds per minute) saw the greatest benefit.

And here’s where the vigorous part becomes really important: Activity sessions of under one minute were also associated with benefits if the above 15 percent vigorous activity rule was applied. In other words, do some jumping jacks or jog in place for 9 to 10 seconds and you’ve just helped your heart!

Being breathless hits the sweet spot

Lead author Dr. Matthew Ahmadi explained, saying, “This study suggests people could potentially reduce their risk of major cardiac events by engaging in daily living activities of at least moderate intensity where they are ideally moving continuously for at least one to three minutes at a time. In fact, it appears that this can have comparable health benefits to longer bouts lasting 5 to 10 minutes.

“The idea of accruing short bouts of moderate to vigorous activity through daily living activities makes physical activity much more accessible to people who are unwilling or unable to take part in structured exercise. But as we see in this data, the length and the vigor people put into these incidental activities matters.”

Senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis added: “The take-home message here is any type of activity is good for your health, but the more effort you put into those daily tasks and the longer you keep up that energy, the more benefits you are likely to reap.

“If you are huffing and puffing and unable to hold a conversation for some of that time you have hit the sweet spot.”

Our Takeaway

This study provides the first direct evidence showing movement doesn’t have to continue for at least ten minutes to be beneficial, which was the view held until recently (2020). It also supports Dr. Solomon’s contention that it’s not necessary to overexert oneself, but it’s important to do something.

So, if you find a brisk daily walk burdensome on your time and energy level, then add your vigorous activity into your daily chores. For example, do some yard work, shovel snow, or sweep the driveway, mop the floor, carry a heavy shopping bag, climb up stairs, or find items to clean that require some real elbow grease—spring cleaning is right around the corner anyway. These everyday activities are not only important, but they could also add years to your life.

Best Regards,
The Aging Defeated Team