If you wish to live longer and be healthier but claim you don’t have the time to do the exercise that’s known to help with both, you’re fast running out of excuses. Not to be preachy, but c’mon: Can you not spare 59 minutes a week for walking?
A growing body of evidence finds significant health benefits to everything from short weightlifting sessions to incredibly brief high-intensity aerobic sessions, but also brisk walking or stair-climbing that you can do on a lunch break. Any such effort is liable to make you happier, too.
The latest study, announced this week, finds moderately intense activities such as brisk walks, gardening or dancing for just 10 to 59 minutes per week was linked to an 18 percent lower risk of death from any cause, compared to inactive people, over the 14-year course of the study, which drew from data on 88,140 U.S. residents age 40 to 85.
More is Better
Study subjects managing 2.5 to 5 weekly hours of moderate activity saw risk of death drop by 31 percent, and those doing 25 hours or more saw a 46 percent lower risk. Twenty-five hours a week was found to be a practical limit — death risk actually climbed slightly among those doing more. But hey, who wants to exercise 3.6 hours a day, seven days a week?
