Weaving tiny bursts of vigorous physical activity into everyday life, such as running to catch a bus or climbing stairs, can halve a woman's risk of heart attack and lower the risk of serious heart events by 45%, according to a new study from the University of Sydney published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
"We found that a minimum of 1.5 minutes to an average of 4 minutes of daily vigorous physical activity, performed in short bursts of up to one minute, was associated with better cardiovascular health outcomes in middle-aged women who do not engage in structured physical exercise," Lead researcher Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis of the University of Sydney said, according to The Mirror.
The study analyzed data on nearly 22,400 adults aged 40 to 79, with 58% being women, as part of the long-term U.K. Biobank health research project, noted the Science Daily. All participants in the study said they did not engage in regular structured exercise, but some women accrued physical activity at work, during a commute, or at home, according to ABC News. Participants wore 24-hour activity trackers for a week to gauge their daily activity. Stamatakis and his team followed the participants for about eight years, utilizing accurate measurements to assess the impact of small amounts of physical activity.
The results showed that women who engaged in short bursts of vigorous activity were significantly less likely to experience major cardiovascular events. Specifically, women who averaged 3.4 minutes of intermittent vigorous physical activity daily were 45% less likely to experience a major cardiovascular event. Moreover, even the less-active women who averaged just 1.5 minutes of intense movement daily lowered their risk of serious heart problems, heart attack, and heart failure by 30%, 33%, and 40%, respectively.
"The potentially protective effects from short bursts of vigorous activity were much larger in women and it can't be an accident — there is something behind it," Stamatakis said, according to ABC News.
After adjusting for factors such as lifestyle, medical history, coexisting diseases, and ethnic origin, the researchers found that the more vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) women did, the lower their risk of a major cardiovascular event. Cardiovascular health was monitored through hospital and mortality records, tracking major adverse cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, and heart failure, until November 2022.
Men did not see the same benefits from short bursts of vigorous activity. "Only women, not men, reaped significant benefits from such activity," reported The Independent. Men who engaged in 5.6 minutes of these activities daily but did not exercise formally reduced their risk of heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure by only 16%. "The sex differences we found may reflect this increased effort women put into any given vigorous task," Stamatakis observed, according to The Independent.
Experts not involved with the study said the findings provided clear evidence that getting the body moving and raising the heart rate, even just for a few minutes daily, can make a significant difference in heart health. "We know already that any amount of exercise is beneficial when trying to lower your risk of heart attacks and strokes. This large study is evidence that getting your body moving and raising your heart rate even just for a few minutes daily can really make a difference to having a healthy heart," said Regina Giblin, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, according to Times Now.
Stamatakis suggested that making short bursts of vigorous physical activity a lifestyle habit could be a promising option for women who dislike structured exercise or are unable to do it for any reason. He added that activities like stair climbing will reach vigorous intensity for most middle-aged and older people, even when done at a regular pace.
"A key principle is the increase in the intensity of an otherwise light or moderate intensity activity for at least 10-20 seconds or longer, to the point that you start feeling out of breath and your heart rate is accelerating," Stamatakis explained, according to The Independent. He noted that VILPA might include gardening "with more vigour," fast walking with a backpack, walking uphill, brief power walking sprints, energetic playing with kids or pets, and stair climbing.
"We should not be fooled into thinking that small amounts of VILPA are a quick fix of a complex problem, i.e., the pandemic of physical inactivity that leads to shorter and unhealthier lives," Stamatakis cautioned. He emphasized that the benefits seen in the study were in women who did short bursts of VILPA almost daily, several times a day, with an average of nine to ten brief bouts.
While the cardiovascular benefits of short vigorous bursts of activity were less pronounced in men, experts suggested that men could similarly look for opportunities to add short bursts of vigorous activity.
"Even a little bit of higher intensity activity might help improve long-term cardiovascular health, and might be just the thing to help some people develop a regular physical activity, or even structured exercise, habit in the long-term," Stamatakis concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq