Benefits to less excercise?

It’ s not news that exercise is healthy for you, but it is perplexing that even exercising less than recommended will decrease likeliness of death. One would think that in order for healthy results to occur, you would need to at least exercise the recommended amount.

According to a Fox News article, “During many years of follow-up, people who did less than the minimum recommended amount of physical activity still had a considerable decrease in risk of death compared to people who did no activity at all, in a new analysis of six studies.”

As an East Texan myself, I must confess, this article really got to me because I don’t really exercise at all. Mostly I make excuses that I’m too busy but I’m wanting to start at least walking or jogging two to three times a week.

Lead author Hannah Arem of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland said, “Our findings support the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which recommend a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity per week for “substantial” health benefit, and suggest “additional” benefit with more than double the exercise minimum. “

If exercising even less than the minimum amount can possibly reduce my risk of death, as these studies suggest, then I am ready to try.

“The new results largely reinforce existing guidelines, which already state that some activity is better than no activity”, according to Todd M. Manini of the University of Florida in Gainesville.

So what do we need to do to decrease our likelihood of death?

“Just one hour of brisk walking or 30 minutes of jogging or biking per week is enough to move into that first category and out of the “inactive” group, he noted. Doing more than the recommended amount didn’t seem to decrease mortality risk much further, but may have many other health benefits beyond just decreasing the risk of death, Manini said.

#excercise #death #EastTexas