New research reveals that even three to four one-minute bursts of huffing and puffing during daily work is connected with significant decreases in the risk of early death, particularly from cardiovascular disease. This is good news for those who don’t enjoy playing sports or visiting to the gym.
The study was conducted by the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney in Australia and was just published in Nature Medicine. The health advantages of what experts refer to as “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity,” or VILPA, are being measured for the first time with accuracy.
VILPA stands for very brief bursts of intense physical activity, which can last up to one to two minutes. Examples of VILPA include sprinting to catch the bus, sprinting while running errands, and playing high-intensity games with the kids.
The researchers discovered that performing just three to four one-minute sessions of VILPA per day can reduce mortality from all causes and cancer by up to 40% and cardiovascular disease deaths by up to 49%.
“Our study shows that increasing the intensity of incidental activities performed as part of daily living can achieve similar benefits to high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and the more the better,” said lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, Professor of Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Population Health at the Charles Perkins Centre of the University of Sydney.
There are many ordinary tasks that may be changed to boost your heart rate for a minute or two. “A few very short sessions totaling three to four minutes a day could go a long way,” the study’s authors write.
The study, according to Professor Stamatakis, illustrates how incidental physical activity can overcome a number of barriers, despite the fact that the majority of persons aged 40 and over do not engage in regular exercise or sport.
“Increasing the intensity of daily activities doesn’t require any specific skills, club memberships, or time commitment. It merely entails walking faster or working around the house with a little more vigor “explained he.
What did they learn about including fitness in daily life?
- VILPA was practiced by 89 percent of participants overall.
- Among individuals who participated in VILPA, 93% of all VILPA bouts lasted no longer than one minute.
- Participants performed eight 1-minute VILPA bouts each day on average, for a total of 6 minutes per day.
- Each VILPA combat lasted, on average, about 45 seconds.
- When comparing individuals who averaged four to five bouts per day to those who didn’t, the gains were greatest.
- However, more advantages were observed with higher VILPA doses, indicating that the more, the better.
- When compared to no VILPA, the maximum of 11 sessions per day was linked to a 65 percent lower risk of cardiovascular death and a 49 percent lower risk of cancer-related death.
It’s interesting to note that results from a comparison of the strenuous activity of 62,000 people who routinely exercised were similar. This suggests that the health advantages are unaffected by whether the strenuous activity is performed as part of a structured exercise program or as household chores.
How was the research done?
Researchers measured the activity of almost 25,000 ‘non-exercisers,’ or people who self-reported that they undertake no sports or exercise during free time, using wrist-worn tracker data from UK Biobank, a sizable scientific database.
The researchers came to the conclusion that any activity that was noted by this group was simply everyday, incidental physical activity.
The researchers then used health information to follow the subjects over a seven-year period.
Because the studies are observational, they cannot conclusively prove cause and effect. To reduce the likelihood that results are explained by variations in participant health state, the researchers, however, used stringent statistical procedures.
“These results highlight the importance of collecting precise, objective measures of physical activity from a wide population. We are immensely appreciative to the 100,000 members of the UK Biobank who wore activity trackers for seven days to produce this important data “said Professor Naomi Allen, UK Biobank’s Chief Scientist.
Call for updated recommendations for physical activity
The University of Sydney, the Big Data Institute at the University of Oxford, University College London, University of Glasgow, University of Southern Denmark, and McMaster University in Canada have joined forces to call for the revision of clinical recommendations and physical activity guidelines in order to keep up with this rapidly changing field.
According to current international guidelines, engaging in organised physical activity during free time, such as playing a sport or running, is the best way to get the health advantages of vigorous-intensity exercise.
The WHO worldwide guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior, co-chaired by Professor Stamatakis, didn’t admit that “all action counts” until 2020, when they also abolished the requirement that activity must be gathered in 10-minute intervals.
Our prior understanding of the health advantages of vigorous physical activity derives from questionnaire-based studies, but Professor Stamatakis argued that questionnaires cannot measure brief bursts of any intensity.
The ability of wearable technology to disclose “micropatterns” of physical activity, like VILPA, holds enormous potential for figuring out the most practical and time-efficient ways people might benefit from physical activity, whether it is done for enjoyment or as part of daily life.
