What if just 5 more minutes of movement a day could already make a difference?

We all know the recommendations. Move more. Exercise. Spend less time sitting. The problem is often not knowing what to do. It is finding the time to do it. What if we changed our perspective? A study published this year in The Lancet shows that, at the population level, even very small changes in our physical activity levels could already make a difference. Among the least active people, just a few additional minutes of physical activity each day were associated, in the researchers’ models, with a potential benefit that was far from negligible. The same was true when sedentary time was reduced. The message, of course, is not that five minutes are enough to be healthy. It is much more interesting than that: Physical activity is not an all-or-nothing approach. We do not always have an hour to spare. But we often have a few minutes to walk a little faster, take the stairs, extend a journey on foot, or simply bring more movement back into an overly sedentary day. By constantly waiting for the perfect moment to exercise, we may be overlooking all the small opportunities our day gives us to move. A few minutes will not do everything. But they can be the beginning of a lot. — Christophe Hausswirth — #MondayChronicle #HumanPerformance #PhysicalActivity #SedentaryBehaviour #Health #Prevention #Science #MASAK