How much do people have to walk to curb the impacts of prolonged sitting? It could be so simple as a five-minute “exercise snack” for each half-hour of sitting, a team of researchers found.
Most individuals know that they should move more and sit less for his or her health. Sedentary time has been linked to “deleterious health outcomes,” the researchers wrote of their study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Even in adolescents, for example, sedentary behavior has been linked to higher risks for depression.
Sitting for prolonged periods, noted Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), might be harmful to people’s health — and that is even in the event that they get regular exercise.
Nonetheless, moving more is just not at all times easy to do, especially on a busy workday. So for his or her latest study, the researchers checked out the several “exercise snacks” that folks can do throughout the day.
These included a minute of walking for each half-hour of sitting, a minute of walking every 60 minutes of sitting, five minutes of walking every half-hour, five minutes of walking every 60, and no walking in any respect.
“The aim of this study was to look at the acute effects of multiple doses of a sedentary break intervention on cardiometabolic risk aspects, concurrently evaluating efficacy of various frequencies and durations of sedentary breaks,” the researchers wrote.
Each of the 11 middle-aged and older adults participated within the study for five days. During every day, they sat for eight hours but engaged in one among the interventions. Their glucose was checked every quarter-hour and their blood pressure every 60 minutes — these two measures are said to be “key indicators of cardiovascular health,” CUIMC noted.
Of the exercise breaks, the five-minute walk every half-hour seemed to be the optimal intervention. Specifically, it was said to be the just one wherein “glucose incremental area under the curve was significantly attenuated.”
Despite the fact that all of the breaks led to reductions in BP in comparison with just sitting all day, the most important reductions were seen within the five-minute walk for each half-hour of sitting, and the one-minute walk for each 60.
“The current study provides essential information concerning efficacious sedentary break doses,” the researchers wrote. “Higher frequency and longer duration breaks (every 30 min for five min) must be considered when targeting glycemic responses, while lower doses could also be sufficient for BP lowering.”
This is kind of according to other works touting the importance and advantages of a bit exercise in curbing the impacts of sedentary time.
A 2019 study, for example, found that those that spent a minimum of 4 minutes a day on exercise were less more likely to die early than those that didn’t exercise in any respect. And in 2015, a printed guideline from a panel of international experts really useful employees spend less time sitting to avoid developing long-term health conditions.
In the present study, the researchers also found that participants had improved mood and fatigue levels after the exercise breaks apart from the one-minute break for each 60 minutes intervention.
That is “essential,” said study lead, Keith Diaz of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, as per CUIMC. It is because people tend to have interaction in behaviors that “make them feel good and which are enjoyable,” he noted.
Now, the researchers are expanding their work with a “wider variety” of participants and much more (25) walking doses.
“(O)ur findings show that even small amounts of walking spread through the work day can significantly lower your risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses,” said Diaz.