Couch potatoes who dread the heavy exercise they believe is needed for a healthy heart can take comfort in a new study.

Using scientifically advanced methods, a Dutch researcher confirms what cardiologists are saying with increasing frequency: Just a little physical effort can bring significant health benefits.

Advertisement

"Attempts to counteract the negative effects of sedentary living include introducing bouts of high-intensity exercise, but I show here that it can be more effective to increase the amount of time spent on activities of moderate intensity while reducing periods of inactivity during waking hours," Dr Klaas Westerterp, a professor of human energetics at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, writes in the latest issue of Science.

And moderate activity is as simple as "all those things where we move around rather than sleeping or lying down," Westerterp says.

He bases his conclusion on a minute-by-minute study of energy expenditure by 30 volunteers, who agreed to be hooked up to sensors that measured physical activity.

Cleaning house is exercise
The end results of the measurements, Westerterp says, is that "the main determinant of the level of physical activity is not sports participation but low-intensity and moderate-intensity activity."

For practical purposes, that means just getting up off the couch and cleaning the house, going for a walk or whatever, "incorporating more activity in everyday life," Westerterp says. His journal report says, "Subjects wanting to increase their metabolic rate should exchange low-intensity activities such as sitting in front of a screen for moderate-intensity activities such as walking or cycling."

That fits in with the findings of several recent American studies, says Dr Gerald Fletcher, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, and a member of the American Heart Association committee that is rewriting the association's recommendations on exercise.

"You don't have to exercise vigorously, go to health clubs or overdo it to get benefits," Fletcher says. "Very moderate exercise, walking about an hour and a half a week, is beneficial."

One recent report from the long-running Women's Health Study said that as little as one hour of walking a week halved the risk of heart disease, Fletcher notes. An earlier report from the Nurses' Health Study said that walking one hour a day reduces the risk of adult-onset diabetes by 25 percent.

The old idea that only vigorous workouts are beneficial - "no pain, no gain," will not be in the new Heart Association standards, which will be published later this year, Fletcher says. "Someone who engages in moderate physical activity will be better off than a sedentary counterpart who does nothing," he says.

 

Print this article on

Rate this article Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent