Are you as shocked to read that as I am? For years we have been hearing that you need 60 minutes of exercise a day to be healthier - an amount that most people consider to be unreachable. Now it turns out that while 35 minutes a day is the exercise sweet spot, even 11 minutes a day of moderate exercise will improve longevity significantly. (Reynolds, 2020)
So, why the change? Better data. What made it better? It wasn't based on consumer surveys.
Ask a person how many hours they sat still yesterday and you will get a wrong answer. Ask a person how many minutes they exercised yesterday and you will get a wrong answer. Why? Because most of us aren't tuned in enough to our actions to be accurate when we are asked to recap them.
That's why we need to seek actual behavioral data when we do research.
A new study published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine in November analyzed the exercise habits of 44,000 middle-aged and older individuals based on the data from the fitness trackers that they wore. (Ekelund, Tarp, Fagerland, et al, 2020)
What they found is that people can be divided into three groups - less than 11 minutes of exercise a day, 11 minutes to 35 minutes of exercise a day and 35+ minutes of exercise a day.
While the latter group lived the longest. The middle group didn't do so badly either. With as little as 11 minutes of exercise a day.
That's a low enough bar that some people who got discouraged by the 60 minute threshold might be inspired to participate and reap the rewards. But first they have to know about the new findings. So spread the word.
11 minutes of exercise a day.
Say it over and over again until people actually hear it.
Reynolds, G. (2020, December 2) 11 Minutes of Exercise a Day May Help Counter the Effects of Sitting. nytimes.com. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/well/move/exercise-sitting-longevity.html
Ekelund U, Tarp J, Fagerland MW, et al
Joint associations of accelero-meter measured physical activity and sedentary time with all-cause mortality: a harmonised meta-analysis in more than 44 000 middle-aged and older individuals
British Journal of Sports Medicine 2020;54:1499-1506. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from
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