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We know that spending hours sitting down isn’t good for us, but how much exercise is needed to counter the negative health impact of a day at a desk? A new study suggests that around 30 to 40 minutes a day of sweating should do this.
Up to 40 minutes of “moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity” each day is about the right amount to balance 10 hours of rest, research shows – although any amount of exercise or even just standing helps in this. to some extent.
This is based on a meta-analysis of nine previous studies, involving a total of 44,370 people in four different countries who wore some form of fitness tracker.
The analysis found that the risk of death in people with a more sedentary lifestyle increased as the time spent in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity decreased.
“In active people doing about 30 to 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, the association between a high time of inactivity and a risk of death is not significantly different from those with low periods of inactivity. “, Write the researchers in their published article.
In other words, engaging in reasonably intensive activities – cycling, brisk walking, gardening – can lower your risk of premature death to what it would be if you weren’t doing all of these while sitting down, as that relates to can be seen in the data amassed from several thousand people.
While meta-analyzes like this always require a stitching together developed in separate studies with different volunteers, timescales, and conditions, the advantage of this particular research is that it relied on relatively objective data. portable devices – and not on self-reported data by participants.
The study comes in parallel with the publication of the World Health Organization’s 2020 Global Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior, collected by 40 scientists on six continents. the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BHSM) has published a special edition to carry both the new study and the new guidelines.
“These guidelines are very timely, given that we are in the midst of a global pandemic, which has confined people indoors for long periods of time and encouraged an increase in sedentary behavior,” says Emmanuel Stamatakis, active researcher Physics and Population Health from the University of Sydney. in Australia.
“People can still protect their health and compensate for the harmful effects of physical inactivity,” says Stamatakis, who was not involved in the meta-analysis but is co-editor of the BJSM. “As these guidelines point out, all physical activity counts and any amount is better than nothing.”
Research based on fitness trackers is broadly in line with the new WHO guidelines, which recommend 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity or 75-150 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity each week to counter sedentary behaviors.
Climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator, playing with children and pets, doing yoga or dancing, doing household chores, walking and cycling are all presented as ways in which people can be more active – and if you can’t manage the 30 to 40 minutes right away, the researchers say, start small.
Making recommendations for all ages and body types is difficult, although the 40-minute timeframe for activity matches previous research. As more and more data is released, we should know more about how to stay healthy even if we have to spend long periods of time at a desk.
“Although the new guidelines reflect the best available science, there are still gaps in our knowledge,” says Stamatakis. “We still don’t know, for example, where exactly the bar for ‘over-sitting’ is. But it’s a fast-paced area of research, and we hope to have answers in a few years.”
The research has been published here, and the new guidelines here, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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