A research project suggests that carrying heavy shopping bags or climbing stairs in a short time can halve the risk of a heart attack in women.
Daily activities can help prevent heart problems in people who are otherwise inactive.
Scientists say making occasional exercise a lifestyle could be a “promising option” for women who don’t like or can’t undertake structured exercise.
The study used data from more than 22,000 British men and women aged 40 to 79 who admitted not to exercising regularly.
Between 2013 and 2015, they all wore physical activity trackers almost 24 hours a day for seven days.
Their health was tracked through hospital and mortality data, which tracked ‘major adverse cardiovascular events’ such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure until November 2022.
High-intensity physical activity that is part of a daily routine is known as vigorous intermittent physical activity.
In middle-aged women who spent an average of 3.4 minutes per day, the risk of a major cardiovascular event fell by 45 percent.
A woman exercising. A few short and sharp exercises can help prevent heart problems in people who are otherwise inactive
High-intensity physical activity that is part of a daily routine is known as vigorous intermittent physical activity. In middle-aged women who spent an average of 3.4 minutes per day, the risk of a major cardiovascular event fell by 45 percent
They were 51 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 67 percent less likely to have heart failure than women who did not do such activities.
Even if you exercise vigorously for about a minute and a half every day, you reduce the risk of a heart attack by a third and the risk of heart failure by 40 percent. This is especially important because women tend to have lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness than men, the researchers said.
Lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, professor at the University of Sydney, said: ‘Making short bursts of vigorous physical activity a habit could be a promising option for women who do not like or are unable to do structured exercise.
“As a starting point, it could be as simple as recording a few minutes of activity during the day, such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries (or) walking uphill.”
Professor Stamatakis added: ‘This should not be seen as a quick fix – there are no magic bullets for health. But our results show that even a little bit of higher intensity activity can help and may be just the right thing to help people develop a habit of regular physical activity – or even exercise.”
The benefits were not as great in men: Those who averaged 5.6 minutes of vigorous activity per day were only 16 percent less likely to have a major cardiovascular event compared to men who did not.
Similarly, a minimum of 2.3 minutes a day was associated with a risk reduction of just 11 percent, according to the findings, which were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.