Activity monitor data from more than 25,000 UK Biobank participants reveals the potential benefits of activity bursts in those who are normally inactive.
Summary
Movement tracker data from more than 25,000 UK Biobank participants have revealed that people whose lives involve bursts of intense activity, such as taking the stairs or running for the bus, have a lower risk of early death than people who are inactive. The researchers behind the study see this ‘unintentional’ exercise as a way for more people to incorporate physical activity into a busy life.
People whose lives involve frequent bursts of ‘unintentional’ exercise, such as taking the stairs or running for the bus, have a lower risk of early death than people who are inactive. While the researchers could not conclusively prove that activity bursts cause people to live longer – only that there’s a link between the two – they hope it will encourage people to move more in their day-to-day lives.
Being physically active can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and many other health conditions. Yet a lack of time or money prevents many people from exercising regularly. Movement data from more than 25,000 UK Biobank participants who wore an activity tracker for one week have revealed that brief bursts of vigorous activity could have similar health benefits as structured exercise.
You can still get the same health benefits as [a gym-goer] by doing the day-to-day activities in short bursts for high intensity.
Dr Matthew Ahmadi, University of Sydney, Australia
Researchers looked at data from participants who don’t consider themselves ‘exercisers’ – meaning they didn’t report exercising in their free time – but who engaged in other pulse-raising activities for a few minutes each day: walking briskly uphill, carrying shopping or running for the bus. These bursts of ‘unintentional’ exercise were linked to a lower risk of death from heart conditions or cancer, compared with participants who did not exercise at all. Unintentional exercisers fared similar in terms of health as the more than 62,000 ‘intentional exercisers’ among UK Biobank participants.
“It’s democratizing activity for everyone” says study team member Matthew Ahmadi from the University of Sydney, Australia. “You can still get the same health benefits as [a gym-goer] by doing the day-to-day activities in short bursts for high intensity.”
A gateway to regular exercise
Aim for the most taxing, in terms of effort, option in your day-to-day routine. Stairs instead of elevators, park the car a bit further away, carry shopping, carry backpacks, walk a bit faster.
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, University of Sydney, Australia
“There is no doubt about the therapeutic effects of exercise, but there is a ceiling of participation in the population” says Ahmadi’s colleague and study leader Emmanuel Stamatakis. “It’s very demanding, logistically for the average person, and add to that, motivational issues, time availability issues, cost.”
He wants to change the way exercise is thought of, including in public health guidelines, and encourage people who don’t see themselves as exercisers to be more active. “Aim for the most taxing, in terms of effort, option in your day-to-day routine,” advises Stamatakis. “Stairs instead of elevators, park the car a bit further away, carry shopping, carry backpacks, walk a bit faster.”
Correlation not causation
Paul Leeson, a cardiologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who wasn’t involved in the study, told the Science Media Centre that “the findings are important because they are based on very robust wearable technology. This was developed specifically for research purposes to capture precise information about activity in a large sample of the UK population… [The researchers] find the association between short bursts of vigorous activity and better health in later life is the same, whether the exercise was done purposefully as part of an exercise programme, or just because you happened to do the activity as part of your other daily activity, for example, by running for a bus.”
“Some doubt does remain about cause and effect in the findings,” said statistician Kevin McConway from the UK’s Open University, who was also independent of the study’s team. “However, personally I’m not going to let that deter me from running for buses when I have to, as I’m pretty confident that does me more good than harm.”