Five Minutes a Day can Change Your Life
While we’ve been told we need a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of vigorous/high intensity exercise per week to get the healthy benefits, more and more research suggests that less time has powerful benefits.
A study released in December of 2022 provides exciting information. Researchers in the UK studied wearable fitness trackers in over 25,000 non-exercisers, and found:
Those that had at least 3 different bouts of 1-2 minute bursts of high intensity activity (such as climbing the stairs fast, walking fast from the car to the office, etc), had a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) of 48%-49%, and from cancer or all other causes of 38%-40%.
Individuals who had at least 4-5 minutes of vigorous activity daily had a reduction in the risk of dying from CVD was reduced by 32%-34% or cancer and all other causes by 26% - 30%.
Key lessons and reminders from this work:
Regular, daily exercise is important for many reasons: improving strength, reduced risk of injury, decreased risk of age related frailty, reduced risks of chronic disease and early death, improving metabolic function (blood pressure, blood sugar management, etc), encouraging a healthy weight, improved joint mobility and function, reducing musculoskeletal pain, and so much more. We should all be working towards engaging in more regular, planned physical activity.
If we’re not currently exercising regularly, going from 0-150 minutes per week is overwhelming, and not realistic.
For those of us who regularly exercise, 30-45 min a day, 5 days a week isn’t always realistic.
There is power in five minutes a day.
Five minutes a day provides undeniable, significant health benefits.
Committing to five minutes a day is a great way to start a new fitness routine.
Having five minute workouts in your toolkit is a great way to maintain your fitness routine.
If starting with five minutes of high intensity exercise feels like too much, you can start with just three, 1-2 minute bouts of activities. Try adding these activities throughout your day, and then work up to 2 or 3 bouts of 5 minute intervals daily.
1-2 minutes of stair climbing
1-2 minutes of jumping jacks
1-2 minutes of fast walking
1-2 minutes of air squats
1-2 minutes of jump rope
1-2 minutes of jogging in place
Committing to five has the power to change your life.
If you need help - check out the resources at thefivevtenfifteen.com
Resource:
Short bursts of vigorous activity reduces mortality
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