Just two minutes a day of exercise can change the lives of many people. Many people cite lack of time as an excuse for not exercising regularly, but a new Australian study could end this justification.
Scientists at the University of Sydney reported that two minutes of vigorous exercise, totaling 15 minutes per week, was significantly associated with a lower risk of death.
Study author Dr. Matthew Ahmadi from the University of Sydney, Australia, says: “The results indicate that exercising throughout the week helps to extend life, and since lack of time is the most common barrier to regular exercise, just two minutes is enough for better health.”
Additionally, the second piece of research shows that higher exercise intensity is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Two minutes of exercise extends life
Study co-author Dr Paddy C. Dempsey from the University of Leicester and the University of Cambridge in the UK adds: “Our study shows that it is not only the amount of activity, but also the intensity, that is important for cardiovascular health.”
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Both projects involved adults between the ages of 40 and 69. The subjects wore an activity tracker on their wrist for seven consecutive days. This served as an objective way of measuring their activity levels, particularly sporadic activity of different intensities during the day.
The first study included 71,893 adults without cardiovascular disease or cancer. The average age of the participants was 62.5 years, and just over half (56%) were female.
Exercise improves health
The study authors measured weekly levels of vigorous activity and frequency of bouts of exercise lasting two minutes or less. This was a long-term study, and subjects were tracked for an average of 6.9 years.
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Health benefits were seen even with short periods of exercise. For example, people who did not exercise vigorously at all had a 4% lower risk of dying within five years.
That risk was halved with less than 10 minutes of weekly activity, and the risk of death dropped to 1 percent with 60 minutes or more.