We’ve been told by scientists for decades that we need at least 30 minutes of exercise every day if we want to stay healthy and prolong our life. However, it would seem that this advice isn’t enough, depending on how a person spends his day. To put it simply, the benefits that a person can get from exercising for half an hour could be negated if he lives a very sedentary life, like sitting for over 11 to 12 hours per day.
“Getting 30 minutes of physical activity per day, or 150 minutes per week, is what’s currently recommended, but you still have the potential to undo all that good work if you sit too long,” says Sebastien Chastin, PhD, professor of health behaviour dynamics at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland and lead author of the study.
In this day and age when we now spend most of the day sitting down, what can we do if we want to stay healthy and prolong our life? Scientists gave us three options on how to spend our day. According to this study, these options could reduce the risk of early death by 30%:
- 55 minutes of exercise, 4 hours of light physical activity, and 11 hours of sitting
- 13 minutes of exercise, 5.5 hours of light physical activity, and 10.3 hours of sitting
- 3 minutes of exercise, 6 hours of light physical activity, and 9.7 hours of sitting
More details about this over at Neuroscience News.
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