Moderate-to-vigorous workouts reduce mortality, even in short bursts under 10 minutes
For decades, Americans have been inundated with a confusing barrage of messages about how best to counteract the health risks of sedentary lifestyles: walk 10,000 steps a day; do a seven-minute workout from a phone app; flip heavy tires in an arduous boot camp class.
It turns out that any and all of those tactics -- even when done in short bursts throughout the day -- could work to reduce Americans’ risk of disease and death, according to research appearing in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
“For about 30 years, guidelines have suggested that moderate-to-vigorous activity could provide health benefits, but only if you sustained the activity for 10 minutes or more,” said study author and distinguished professor William E. Kraus, M.D., of the Duke University School of Medicine. “That flies in the face of public health recommendations, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and parking farther from your destination. Those don’t take 10 minutes, so why were they recommended?”
Read full article and watch video at Duke Health News