You need 30 to 40 minutes of daily exercise to undo the damage of sitting all day, says research

You know that sitting all day is bad for your health. Experts even use a term sit-down disease for the increased health problems and risk of premature death associated with a lot of chair time. So, what is a worker bound to a desk to do?

Make sure you exercise 30 to 40 minutes a day, that’s what.

The health damage and risk of premature death associated with prolonged sitting can be neutralized by exceeding the minimum recommended levels of physical activity for a person — 150 minutes of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of strenuous exercise — says the World Health Organization (WHO) in his new global guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior published in a special dedicated issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

These findings come from a research overview, which includes nine studies. More than 44,000 men and women wore activity trackers and were followed for about 10 years. It is not surprising that the research reported that adults who clocked 10 or more hours of sedentary time per day had a significantly higher risk of premature death. But that risk was especially pronounced among people who were generally physically inactive.

People who completed 30 to 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity had a significantly lower risk of premature death – similar to those who had very low amounts of sitting time, according to the study.

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For reference, moderate activity is anything that raises your heart rate but also allows you to still have a conversation. Powerful activity increases your heart rate so that you breathe heavily — enough that you can still speak, but only in short sentences.

Researchers say these findings reinforce the recommendations made in the 2020 World Health Organization Global Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior.

The other important takeaway from this research: All movement counts, even five minutes of activity accumulated throughout the day. Previously, the guidelines specified that physical activity should be continued for at least 10 minutes to be beneficial. This has changed – the body of research shows that physical activity of any duration improves all health outcomes and reduces the risk of premature death.

“These guidelines are very timely, as we are in the middle of a global pandemic, who locked people up indoors for long periods of time and encouraged an increase in sedentary behavior, ”said co-editor of special issue Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis of the University of Sydney. a press release.

“But people can still protect their health and offset the harmful effects of physical inactivity. As these guidelines emphasize, all physical activity counts and any amount of it is better than nothing. ”

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