Key Takeaways

Maybe you’d love to hit the gym for a serious workout session, take along walk, or go for a run—if only your jam-packed schedule would allow it. What if the benefits of physical activity could take less time? A new study suggests that even short bursts of exercise you can do at home may boost your health and could even lower your risk for cancer.

The study included more than 22,000 non-exercising adults. The participants were asked to add “vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA)” to their days—these were just short bursts of one to two minutes. Participants were not asked to change their diets at all during the study.

But is just three to four minutes of exercise really enough to have health-protecting effects? Here’s what experts have to say.

Cancer Types Related to Physical InactivityEsophageal adenocarcinomaLiverLungKidneyGastric cardiaEndometrialMyeloid leukemiaMyelomaColorectalHead and neckBladderBreast

Esophageal adenocarcinomaLiverLungKidneyGastric cardiaEndometrialMyeloid leukemiaMyelomaColorectalHead and neckBladderBreast

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Matthew Ahmadi, PhD, a doctoral fellow and researcher at the University of Sydney and co-author of the study, told Verywell that VILPA is basically your normal, everyday activities at a higher intensity.

“If we find ourselves ‘huffing and puffing,’ this is a good indicator that we are doing VILPA,” he said. “An important finding was that it didn’t need to be for long bouts. Short bouts accumulated through the day provided health benefits.”

According to Ahmadi, VILPA does not require you to hit a certain heart rate. For the purposes of the study, participants wore exercise trackers to quantify their physical exertion. An increased heart rate for 20-30 seconds after doing VILPA, shortness of breath, or difficulty talking easily after one minute are all indicators that the activities were intense enough to get the body working.

“The general principle is: If we sing while doing the activity, it is of light intensity; if we can speak but not sing, it is of moderate intensity; if we can hardly speak more than a few words, we are hitting the vigorous intensity zone,” Ahmadi said. “This is high-quality movement that likely has a great health-enhancing potential if repeated regularly.”

Matthew AhmadIf we find ourselves ‘huffing and puffing,’ this is a good indicator that we are doing VILPA.

Matthew Ahmad

If we find ourselves ‘huffing and puffing,’ this is a good indicator that we are doing VILPA.

Erika Rees-Punia, PhD, MPH, American Cancer Society Senior Principal Scientist in Epidemiology and Behavioral Research, told Verywell the fact that this type of movement is relatively common is key to why it can be beneficial.

Many studies have shown the health benefits of vigorous exercise, but the mental hurdles and time management necessary to get this kind of activity prove challenging for many people—even if they know what the research says.

“Physical activity is a broad term for any skeletal movement that requires energy above what you need for resting,” said Rees-Punia. “Exercise, on the other hand, is often repetitive skeletal muscle movements done for the purpose of improving health or fitness. Intent is a big difference between physical activity and exercise. All exercise is physical activity, but not all physical activity is exercise.”

According to Rees-Punia, running after your kids, walking up a flight of stairs, or briskly walking to the car or store would all count as VILPA.

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Little Time, Big Results

While short bursts of VILPA appeared helpful for the people in the study, the effects did not happen overnight. It’s important to know that the participants were followed up with for nearly seven years.

Ahmadi said that the participants did see some results after a couple of weeks, but that the effects were transient—if they did not keep going with their VILPA, they’d lose out on the benefits. VILPA was most effective after a longer time, which suggests that there was a cumulative effect.

Since the study did not include participants who already exercised regularly, Rees-Punia said that it’s hard to say if VILPA would have the same benefit for them.

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“If you are participating in exercise, you should absolutely keep doing that,” she said. “But there is a great message here: if you are someone who has no interest in or motivation for starting an exercise program, it is possible, based on these results, that making some pretty small behavioral changes throughout your usual day could be beneficial. These changes could include things like choosing to take the stairs over the elevator or raking the leaves instead of using a leaf blower.”

Ahmadi said that future research will explore the potential effects of VILPA on specific types of cancer.The researchers also want to do randomized controlled trials to better understand the potential health and longevity benefits of VILPA.

In the meantime, Ahmadi said that even just knowing that increasing the intensity of your everyday tasks should be encouraging. Since so many people struggle to get regular, intense exercise, it’s nice to know that even taking smaller steps may help prevent thelong-term health consequences of too much sitting.

What This Means For YouIf you have a desk job or are just more into lounging instead of lunging, know that even doing short bursts of intense activity during the day can add up and benefit your health over time.

What This Means For You

If you have a desk job or are just more into lounging instead of lunging, know that even doing short bursts of intense activity during the day can add up and benefit your health over time.

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4 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Friedenreich CM, et al.Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity and cancer incidence among nonexercising adults: The UK Biobank accelerometry study.JAMA Oncol. Published online July 27, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.1830Moore SC, Lee IM, Weiderpass E, et al.Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults.JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(6):816-825. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How much activity do adults need?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Physical activity and cancer.

4 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Friedenreich CM, et al.Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity and cancer incidence among nonexercising adults: The UK Biobank accelerometry study.JAMA Oncol. Published online July 27, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.1830Moore SC, Lee IM, Weiderpass E, et al.Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults.JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(6):816-825. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How much activity do adults need?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Physical activity and cancer.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Friedenreich CM, et al.Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity and cancer incidence among nonexercising adults: The UK Biobank accelerometry study.JAMA Oncol. Published online July 27, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.1830Moore SC, Lee IM, Weiderpass E, et al.Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults.JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(6):816-825. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How much activity do adults need?.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Physical activity and cancer.

Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Friedenreich CM, et al.Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity and cancer incidence among nonexercising adults: The UK Biobank accelerometry study.JAMA Oncol. Published online July 27, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.1830

Moore SC, Lee IM, Weiderpass E, et al.Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults.JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(6):816-825. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.How much activity do adults need?.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Physical activity and cancer.

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