Fitness

For healthy aging, light exercise or sleep beats being sedentary

Published

1 year ago

August 1, 2024

For healthy aging, light exercise or sleep beats being sedentary

Less TV, more physical activity and more sleep — those are the keys to healthy aging according to recent research.
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If you want to increase your odds of living a long and healthy life, watch less television and become more physically active, because even a small amount of physical activity can improve overall health, according to an observational study published last month in JAMA Network Open.

While there have been many studies showing that moderate to vigorous physical activity is associated with healthy aging, researchers wanted to know if light physical activity compared with sedentary behaviors also improves healthy aging, and if not, how can people’s time be reallocated.

They found that replacing a sedentary behavior such as watching TV with even low-intensity activity — such as standing or walking around while cooking or washing clothes — increased one’s odds of healthy aging. And at work, replacing some of the time spent sitting with simple movements such as standing or walking around the office can improve health.

“These findings indicate that physical activity need not be high intensity to potentially benefit various aspects of health, which have especially important public health implications as older people tend to have limited physical ability to engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity,” Molin Wang, an associate professor in epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an author of the study, wrote in an email.

For the purposes of the study, healthy aging was defined as surviving to at least 70 with no major chronic diseases, and no impairment in subjective memory, physical function or mental health. The data, though, suggests the relationship between light activity and healthy aging continues into the 80s and 90s, Wang said.

Replacing TV time with physical activity or sleep

Researchers used responses from a Nurses’ Health Study of 45,176 women that began more than 20 years ago. Respondents were asked questions such as “On average, how many hours per week do you spend standing or walking around at home?” or “On average, how many hours per week did you spend standing or walking around at work or away from home?” Participants had an average age of 59.2 and were free of major chronic diseases when the study began in 1992. They were then tracked for 20 years.

Working in regular exercise, whether it’s a walk in the park or a light workout session at the gym or in a class, is good for healthy aging.
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The study incorporated isotemporal substitution modeling to evaluate the potential effect on healthy aging of replacing one hour of one behavior with the equivalent duration of another. They found, for instance, that every two hours spent sitting and watching television was linked to a 12% decrease in the odds of healthy aging. Conversely, every two hours per day of light physical activity at work was linked to a 6% rise in the odds of healthy aging.

Replacing TV time with light physical activity at home increased one’s odds of healthy aging as well. For those who slept seven hours a night or less, replacing television time with sleep was also beneficial for health.

For healthy aging, the activity you choose doesn’t have to be an all-out workout. It could be a light walk or even being active in your house.
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“What we found is that if you replace sedentary behaviors with any activities, I mean, even light physical activities, like standing or walking around, or doing household chores, it’s better than just being a couch potato for an extended period of time,” said Frank Hu, professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an author of the study.

And swapping TV time for light physical activity, or sleep for some individuals, at any age would be beneficial, Wang said.

The researchers adjusted for several variables, including age; income; family history of cancer, myocardial infarction and diabetes; baseline hypertension and high cholesterol; menopausal status and postmenopausal hormone use; and diet.

The study findings show an association between sitting and watching television vs. light physical activity, and the odds of healthy aging, and not a causal relationship. The researchers also wrote that because their study population was limited to nurses in the United States, the “findings might not be generalizable to other populations.”

Hu said the isotemporal substitution model they used was important, likening it to the concept of opportunity cost in economic theory or the idea of isocaloric substitutions in food and nutrition. These models acknowledge that people have a finite amount of time in a day or a finite number of calories they are going to consume, so when they choose one thing over another, it comes at a cost of doing something else.

Watching TV and junk food consumption

The problem with watching TV is not just that it’s a sedentary habit. While watching, people tend to eat more junk food and drink more sugary beverages, increasing their caloric consumption, Hu said.

Scott Lear, a professor in health sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, said that while the findings of the study may not be groundbreaking, researchers made some important distinctions. They made clear that health is also affected by what people are doing when they’re sedentary and where they’re doing it — not just that they’re inactive. There are different health repercussions to sitting at home vs. at work and between sitting and watching TV as opposed to sitting and reading or writing.

“Watching TV has been associated with greater risk for early death, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers, and watching TV is a bit different than just, say, sitting reading a book,” said Lear, who was not involved in the study.

The fact that sleep was included in the study was also novel, Lear said, noting that it’s an underrated health behavior. It may seem like a sedentary behavior, but the brain is very active when we sleep, performing functions that affect our overall health.

He compared the brain to an office, and at the end of the day, all of the day’s happenings — going to the grocery store, having to run to the bus, talking to someone at work — are like files that have been scattered all over the floor and must be picked up and organized by morning. That’s what the brain does when we sleep, he said.

Sleep is also when we remove toxins that build up in the brain throughout the day, and studies have shown a link between an accumulation of this metabolic waste and a person’s risk for dementia later in life, Lear said.

“We talk about physical activity and healthy nutrition. Those tend to be the two heavyweights that we talk about. But sleep is incredibly important,” Lear said.

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Fitness

How to avoid exercise burnout and still build muscle, according to an expert

Published

3 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Press Room

How to avoid exercise burnout and still build muscle, according to an expert

Many of us have experienced the overwhelming feeling of mental and physical exhaustion that comes with exercise burnout. When you push yourself too hard without sufficient rest and recovery, it ultimately becomes counterproductive to your fitness goals, and your energy will tank along with your motivation. Not only that, your performance will suffer when you overtrain and under-recover, and you’re left sinking further into the couch, wondering how you’ll lift that next weight, swim that next lap, or run that next mile.

With a combo of the right nutrition, rest, recovery, and lowering your training intensity, you can get back on track. To learn more about avoiding burnout and torching fat while sculpting muscle for men, I asked certified personal trainer and Vice President of Education for Body Fit Training, Steve Stonehouse, to share some of his vast knowledge on the subject. With decades of experience in fitness education, fitness programming, and personal training, Steve Stonehouse developed an in-depth knowledge of weight loss, improving body fat composition, building muscle, and the best exercise plans that generate serious results.

Expert advice on burning fat

The Manual: As the Vice President of Education for Body Fit Training, what are your top tips for burning fat and improving body composition for men?

Steve Stonehouse: As the programmer and head of education, this is a little cliché, but I go for balance. Not every workout can be this CrossFit type, give it all you’ve got, smoke yourself, and work out — that’s not sustainable. The other end of the spectrum is just walking at a moderate pace for 20 minutes on a treadmill three times a week, because that’s not going to do it either. There’s value in both of those scenarios.

It’s best to have a session or two each week where the intensity is very high, and you’re testing yourself and pushing yourself closer to your limits. That’s anaerobic exercise, which is 90% intensity or above. It’s fine, safe, and healthy to get there occasionally, but every workout can’t be one of those. Your body isn’t built to train that way; you’re gonna burn out, and you could get injured, or both.

There’s a place for some moderate intensity as well, so if I were focusing on heart rate, I would say in the 80s, so it’s hard but not max effort, and it’s more sustainable. When you’re in that 70 to high 80s range, we categorize that as building aerobic capacity. Overall, I suggest an approach with recovery, moderate intensity, and then high intensity every now and again to test yourself.

The best cardio for fat loss

TM: How does cardio help with fat loss, and what types of cardio do you recommend?

Steve Stonehouse: I’m a big fan of high-intensity cardio. Sometimes, people think if some is good, more is probably better, but more isn’t always better. If I were putting a program together for six days a week, I’d have three days as some type of cardio-driven day, and three of those days I would have some version of resistance training. Maybe some days are heavier, and other days are a little lighter with higher rep targets and less rest.

Of those three cardio days, I’d recommend that one of them be a high-intensity max effort type HIIT session. Another could be hard with a heart rate in the 80s, but not max effort. That third cardio day could be more metabolic conditioning, like kettlebell swings, sled pushes, rower, or SkiErg, and things like that.

Ramping up muscle growth

TM: What types of exercise are the most effective for ramping up muscle growth?

Steve Stonehouse: We’re moving into a great space right now in fitness, and it seems like every 10 or 15 years, there’s this new movement. CrossFit first popped up and led the charge for metabolic conditioning and no days off. It’s the idea that if you still feel good at the end of a workout, you didn’t train hard enough. I think we’re phasing out of that and into wanting to lift heavy again. People who wouldn’t have touched a barbell ten years ago are lifting heavy now.

Keep in mind that heavy is a relative term. You can get stronger with some lighter dumbbells, but there are limits to that. A blend is nice, but you do need to include those times when you’re lifting heavy and challenging yourself at a low rep target.

Say, I’m going to do barbell deadlifts for five reps. If I can do eight, then that weight is too light. It’s intended to be a weight that you can’t get 15 reps of. There are advantages to lifting heavy with low-rep targets and longer rest times. For example, we’re going to do four sets of five reps of barbell deadlifts with two minutes of rest in between sets. If you can do more than five or six reps, that weight is too light. There’s a lot of value in lifting heavy.

TM: We know it’s probably difficult to choose, but what are your top three favorite fat-burning, muscle-building exercises right now?

Steve Stonehouse:

Barbell Zercher squat
Barbell deadlift
Flat barbell bench press

TM: How often should you work out to build muscle?

Steve Stonehouse: For the heavy session with five or six reps and longer rest periods, you could have a day each week that’s primarily focused on upper-body heavy strength training. Then, you could split it up and have another day that’s primarily focused on the lower body. You could do that, so you’re not in the gym for two hours; it’s more like a reasonable 45 or 50 minutes. If you were feeling ambitious, you could get a third one in toward the end of the week and have a bit of a mixed session where there’s not as much volume, but you have upper-body and lower-body focus.

With that type of heavy volume, you’re going to need a decent amount of time to rest. So, if I were doing a heavy bench press today, I probably wouldn’t do that again until next week — same thing with squats, deadlifts, or any larger main lifts.

Incorporating sufficient rest days and progressive overload

TM: Are rest days important for the best results?

Steve Stonehouse: Yes. Rest and recovery are two different things. A recovery session would include a bit of activity, but at a lower intensity. Recovery is restoring to a natural, healthy state, and rest is inactivity.

TM: With resistance training, do you recommend incorporating progressive overload, where you gradually increase the weights over time to develop muscle strength and mass?Steve Stonehouse: 100%. We do strength training regularly at BFT. We have a portion of our performance app, and you can enter your five-rep max. On different days, the performance app tells you how much weight you should be lifting on that day to appropriately follow that progressive overload model.

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December 11, 2025

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Fitness

Skip the 10,000 Steps: The One Exercise That Matches a Full Day of Walking, according to a Fitness Coach

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

Press Room

Skip the 10,000 Steps: The One Exercise That Matches a Full Day of Walking, according to a Fitness Coach

On Instagram, Zarina Manaenkova advised taking short intervals of squats could deliver the same impact as a full day of walking. “Ten squats instead of 10 thousand steps,” Zarina’s post read, referencing a study that equated ten squats every 45 minutes with 10,000 steps. Manaenkova explained the science behind her claim, stating, “When your muscles actively contract, they produce very important compounds that influence your brain, metabolism, and even your fat-burning processes. Meanwhile, a simple walk does not have this effect. So, if you want to stay young, squat.”