You can weave these quick exercises into any part of your day

Recent research suggests that minor increases in daily moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity could lower the risk of death.

The study, published in The Lancet, analysed data from nearly 95,000 middle-aged and older adults in the UK, alongside 40,000 people from Norway, Sweden, and the US.

Researchers, headed by academics from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences, discovered that just five minutes of additional exercise per day could cut deaths by 6% amongst the least active individuals, and amongst the general population, it could decrease the risk of death by 10%.

Data from the UK portion of the study, based on the UK Biobank research, also reveals that cutting sedentary time by 30 minutes a day could reduce 4.5% of deaths among all adults taking part in the study, excluding those who were already highly active.

This significant research shows that even just a few minutes of daily movement can deliver substantial health benefits, reports the Mirror.

With this in mind, Tara Riley, a Pilates, barre, and strength trainer, has shared five short-burst exercises that can be readily incorporated into even the most hectic schedules.

1. Squats

“Squats are fantastic, especially if you’ve done lots of sitting during the day. They are a really great way to reactivate those glutes and use those legs,” says Riley. “For a standard squat, just put your legs about hip-width apart and send your bottom backwards and shift your weight into your heels.

“You could even do some squats hovering over a chair as that can help give you a good sense of where your body should be. If you want to make them harder, you could also do little pulses to really fire up your legs so your glutes feel really warm by the end of it.”

2. Planks

“I would also recommend some sort of variation of a plank,” suggests Riley. “A plank is a really good way to build strength and stability as you are stabilising through your shoulders, your hips and through your core.”

However, she acknowledges that maintaining planks for an extended period can be tough, so she has proposed some alternatives for beginners aiming to progress.

“You can always start on your hands and knees and do knee taps,” recommends Riley. “For this, hover your knees off the ground and then tap them back down. Then as you get stronger, hover them off and hold for 20 seconds. Also, if your wrists aren’t super happy in this position, you can always go onto your elbows.”

3. Hip mobility exercises

“I am also a big fan of hip mobility, because I know it’s an area that a lot of people really struggle with. Many people have got tight hips or painful hips, and sometimes that comes from doing a lot of sitting,” explains Riley.

“Everyone walks and goes up and down stairs, but that’s actually only moving that joint in two directions, forwards and backwards, and really that joint wants to move side to side and in a circle to keep it healthy and happy.”

She emphasises that movements such as hip and leg circles can be performed virtually anywhere and at any moment, offering genuine benefits for flexibility. “Stand up and place your hand on a surface, then lift one leg straight forwards and return to standing 15-20 times, followed by lifting it backwards for the same number of repetitions,” Riley explains.

“You’re going to start to feel those glutes going, and then you can also lift it out to the side again for the same amount of reps.

“Then bring the knee forwards, and then circle it out to the side, and the round to the back so you’re doing a big hip or leg circle. This is a really good strengthening but also mobilising hip exercise.”

4. Tabletop toe taps

“If you sit at a desk all day long, you might have a tendency to start to hunch forward to look at your work screen,” Riley acknowledges. “Doing core exercises like tabletop toe taps is really good for strengthening the core to help you sit and stand up straight.”

To perform tabletop toe taps, begin on the floor. “Lie on your back and take your legs into a tabletop position, so your knees are bent,” Riley directs.

Advertisement

“Make sure your knees are above your hips and your shins are parallel to the floor, and then just tap one toe down at a time and bring them back up to table top position.

“Try to do that while breathing, but also without your back moving. So, make sure that you aren’t arching your back and are really working into that core. If you’re feeling really strong, you could curl forwards and keep your head off the floor while you tap your toes.”

5. Shoulder glides

“I think your shoulder mobility and the ability to move your arms is really important for your back and for how your shoulders feel, so an exercise like shoulder glides can be really great,” Riley suggests. “Start by standing upright against the wall, so the back of your head and shoulder blades are both touching the wall.

“Reach both your arms all the way up overhead, so the backs of your hands are also against that wall, and then draw those elbows down towards your waist and up again. Try to keep the back of your hands and your arms against the wall as you do that.”

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.

Mike “The Bad Ass” Sommerfeld is on a mission to defend his Arnold Men’s Classic Physique title and is taking a no-nonsense approach to outperforming the likes of Wesley Vissers and a debuting Sam Sulek. To illustrate this, the gigantic German used a recent Instagram post to share one of his go-to leg days for total domination, and you can try it too.

Sommerfeld brought the complete package to the stage during the 2025 Arnold Classic, impressing the judges with his muscle mass, definition, symmetry, and conditioning, but with a stacked field ahead of him in March, the big man shares that one of the workouts he’s forged follows a back-to-basics approach. Apparently, The Bad Ass’s leg day is about quality over quantity and requires just four exercises in total. “Two for hams, and two for quads,” he explained.

Mike Sommerfeld’s 4-Exercise Leg Day Workout Ahead of the 2026 Arnold Classic

Warmup

Hamstrings

Quads

Mike Sommerfeld’s Leg Day Strategy Explained

Joining the likes of other bodybuilding great, Martin Fitzwater, Sommerfeld shared that he begins leg workouts with adductors to warm up his upper legs and get the blood circulation stimulated. “I always start with adductors to warm up my hips and get me going,” explained Sommerfeld. “Especially mentally, and physically, to lift heavier weights for the upcoming exercises.” He noted that while on the machine, he pushes his back to the pad as far as possible, to increase both the stretch and the contraction while executing his reps.

Homing in on his hamstrings, Sommerfeld’s first exercise is the seated leg curl. “The reason for that is, you get an amazing pre-stretch position by just sitting down (and getting set up) on the machine” said the man-mountain. Next up is the deadlift. “Why? Because we already contracted hamstrings pretty hard, and they are pumped as hell,” confirmed Sommerfeld. “Now we can stretch the s**t out of our hamstrings.”

Moving on to quads, the 2025 Arnold Men’s Classic Physique champion shared that his new favorite quad exercise is the hack squat (also referred to as the hack press). “The reason for that is, it feels so much more natural to my knees.” Sommerfeld explained that he feels almost zero pressure or pain on his knees with this squat variation. “And I can go really deep into the stretch, and I can focus entirely on my way up, to contract my quads as hard as possible.” The Bad Ass also shared that he likes to use rest-pause sets on the hack squat, performing his reps towards failure, taking a short break, and then going again to towards failure. “So, after hitting 10 to 12 reps, I like to pause for a few seconds, and then go again for three to four more reps.”

Last but not least for his legs, Sommerfeld rounds out his workout with the belt squat. “The reason for that is, it’s actually so much smarter to use a belt squat because it loads your hips, not your shoulders,” coached the champ. “In regular (back) squats you have all the load on your shoulders, and your body needs to stabilize it all the way. That creates a lot of fatigue and we wanna train legs not our full body. This is why I chose the belt squat, an amazing piece of equipment. You can hold yourself and stabilize yourself (on the platform). You can go really deep, wait a second in the stretched position, and then go up again, and squeeze it out.”

In terms of sets and rep, Sommerfeld explained that he does “multiple, multiple, sets,” but for us mere mortals, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps will bring mass building results. By focusing on the quality of his stretch and contractions and isolating his quads and hamstrings rather than fatiguing the rest of his body, Mike Sommerfeld could present his best physique yet come March.

To follow Mike Sommerfeld on Instagram, click here. 

Small changes in diet, exercise and sleep may extend life by a year when put into practice together, while making larger changes could provide more than nine additional years of life, according to a new study.

Combining changes in diet, sleep and exercise also increased “health span,” or the number of years a person may live without major health complaints.

“These findings highlight the importance of considering lifestyle behaviors as a package rather than in isolation,” said lead study author Nick Koemel, a research fellow in physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Syndey’s main campus in Camperdown, Australia.

“By targeting small improvements across multiple behaviors simultaneously, the required change for any single behavior is substantially reduced, which may help overcome common barriers to long-term behavior change,” Koemel said in an email.

READ MORE: Can’t sleep? Take steps to improve your sleep hygiene, which boosts health.

However, that finding is far from conclusive, said Kevin McConway, professor emeritus of applied statistics at the Open University in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study.

“A snag is that the paper uses complicated statistical methods that are not always described clearly,” McConway said in an email. “It’s therefore difficult to tell to what extent the findings have emerged from the researchers’ choice of statistical analyses, rather than things that are clearer from the data.”

Using scientific modeling, Koemel and his team found combining as little as five additional minutes of sleep, two minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (such as brisk walking or taking the stairs), and an additional ½ cup of vegetables a day might lengthen life by a year.

However, this predicted outcome was only for people who had an extremely poor diet, slept less than six hours per night and only exercised about seven minutes a day. In addition, it wasn’t until the model’s lifestyle improvements greatly increased that the results became scientifically significant.

“All of the gains reported in this study are theoretical,” Koemel said. “We cannot claim a direct causal effect from the lifestyle patterns. These findings should therefore be interpreted as expected or projected benefits under assumed behavioral variations, rather than confirmed effects of an intervention.”

The greatest gain in longevity — 9.35 years — and health span — 9.46 years — came with the combination of an addition of 42 to 103 minutes of exercise and sleeping between seven and eight hours a day, while also eating an extremely healthy diet that included fish, whole grains, vegetables and fruits.

Adding exercise to the mix moved the longevity needle the most — a fact that did not surprise preventive cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.

“Exercise is the elixir of youth,” said Freeman, who was not involved in the study. “But let me be clear — this study should not be interpreted as exercising for exactly two minutes and stop, you’ve accomplished a goal.

“Rather, you should aim to get 20 to 30 minutes of brisk, breathless physical activity, combining strength and cardio in every day. That advice has not changed over decades of study.”

READ MORE: Want to start moving? Check out this guidance to ease into walking.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal eClinicalMedicine, looked at almost 60,000 participants from England, Scotland and Wales in the UK Biobank, a longitudinal health study, who were followed for an average of eight years. Everyone in the study provided information on their diet — including ultraprocessed foods, such as sugar-sweetened beverages. A subset of the group also wore wrist watches that provided more objective measurements of movement and sleep.

Researchers gathered this medical data and used it to form theoretical scenarios of improved longevity and health span, which was defined as the number of years free of cardiovascular disease, dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and type 2 diabetes.

Enjoying a longer life and a longer health span, or remaining free of disease, aren’t the same thing, Koemel said. “Combined improvements in sleep, physical activity, and diet were associated with longer lifespans, even if people still developed some chronic conditions later in life.”

READ MORE: Want to improve your diet? Instead of making drastic changes, you can ease into the Mediterranean diet.

After adjusting the findings for many variables — such as the amount of ultraprocessed foods, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness — the results differed depending on how much of each behavior change was accomplished.

In addition to the lowest and highest levels of the lifestyle changes discussed above, researchers also found lower levels of exercise — less than 23 minutes a day — sleeping seven to eight hours a night, and an excellent diet were associated with nearly four more years of life and three years of health, the study found.

Moderate levels of exercise (between 23 and 42 minutes a day), sleeping up to eight hours per night, and a high-quality diet were associated with a greater improvement of an additional seven years of life and just over six years of good health. So many calculations! What does it all mean?

“This is not about the absolute minutes you exercise or sleep or the number of pieces of broccoli you eat. It’s about making sure that all the things you do in your life are synonymous with health,” Freeman said.

“This is a great time of year to reflect on how you live and make big changes that will set you up for a life of wellness by modifying your life’s trajectory,” he said. “The overall signal in the noise is if you live well, your health span and then your lifespan will be longer.”