New research shows that even small increases in activity can have a powerful impact on health and longevity. Just five minutes of moderate activity each day – such as brisk walking, cycling or climbing stairs – could prevent around one in ten premature deaths, which could help millions of individuals live longer.
While this doesn’t mean that just doing five minutes of exercise is enough to ensure you stay healthy, it is an indication that compared to doing nothing, this small increase in physical activity can bring improvements to overall health. For those who are already pretty active or relatively fit, doing five minutes more exercise will have a smaller effect.
But it shows the power of doing even just some very basic forms of exercise.
“Physical activity is something that is really beneficial for preventing high stress rates and high burnout rates,” says Nicole Logan, an assistant professor of kinesiology from the University of Rhode Island in the US. “We know that physical function, muscle strength, muscle quality, bone strength, these are really good predictors of later life mortality. So living longer and living healthier for longer.”
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