Is Intense Exercise Better?

The national recommendation for exercise is 30 to 60 minutes most days of the week. That works out to 150 to 300 minutes per week or 2.5 to 5 hours. At one point or another, I think many people have asked “What’s the least amount of exercise that I can do and still get benefits?” It’s not a simple question because it depends on the benefits you want to get. Top of the list is probably decreasing the risk of dying. It’s time to consider that question as we try to become the best version of ourselves. A recently published study may help.

Researchers analyzed the survey results from over 400,000 subjects in the National Health Interview Survey. This survey is given every year to 35,000 randomly-selected people in the U.S. Researchers focused on questions related to physical activity. They wanted to know whether people exercised, how long they exercised, and how intense the exercise was. They also asked how much time was spent in vigorous exercise within the total time people exercised.

I could have predicted the results: as the percentage of time spent in vigorous exercise increased, all-cause mortality and mortality from CVD and cancer decreased. This held true for all age groups as well as for all BMI groups. Even if you’re obese, you can still reduce your risk if part of your workout is dedicated to vigorous exercise. The question remains: how intense and how long do you have to exercise to get the life-saving benefits? I’ll finish this on Saturday.

The Insider Conference Call is tomorrow night. I’ll go into more details on this study as well as review a video making the rounds about the safety of the COVID vaccinations. If you’re not an Insider, this may be the right time to join.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References: JAMA Int Med. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.6331