Morning exercise, short, lower steps

An Australian study suggests combining 30 minutes of exercise in the morning with short walking breaks throughout the day.
Adding three-minute breaks to disrupt long sitting periods is particularly beneficial for older, overweight or obese women, report the study's authors in the journal Hypertension.
"Extended sessions are a commonplace behavior in modern society, with displacement, work and home settings that make us sit," said Michael Wheeler, lead author of the study, from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. from Melbourne, Australia.
Recent studies have shown that prolonged sitting during the day can increase blood pressure, a key risk factor for heart disease.
"Seniors, in particular, can build a lot of ground all day, with more than two-thirds of their day devoted to sedentary behavior," he told Reuters Health by email.
Although exercise and sitting breaks can reduce high blood pressure or hypertension, Wheeler and colleagues examined whether a combination of exercise and short breaks would provide additional benefits .
They recruited 67 men and women aged 60 to 74 who were overweight or obese. About 4 out of 10 participants also had high blood pressure. Each participant spent three days of different tests in random order, each separated by a minimum of six days. The researchers measured heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, and other blood markers during each test.
In one case, the participants were sitting without interruption for eight hours. In another, they sat for an hour, then walked for 30 minutes at moderate intensity on a treadmill and sat for 6.5 hours. In the third condition, they sat for an hour, spent 30 minutes on the treadmill, and then returned to sit down, but also took 3-minute breaks on the treadmill every 30 minutes. for the rest of the day. The treadmill was set at two miles at the time of exercise, with a tilt for the 30-minute morning walk program and no tilt for 3-minute breaks.
During the study session periods, participants had to read and work quietly on a laptop and avoid activities that could raise blood pressure, such as watching television and making non-essential phone calls.
Overall, the research team found that the average arterial blood pressure of the participants, in group, was approximately 1 mm / Hg lower throughout the day, when they were in a test condition including 'physical activity. The most significant reduction was observed when people did 30-minute treadmill exercise in the morning and took breaks of 3 minutes of walking throughout the day – although the extra benefit of the breaks market is only for women.