Fitness
Just A Few Minutes of Hard Exercise May Slash Your Risk for These Serious Health Conditions, Study Says
How much exercise is enough?
As little as 4 to 5 minutes a day of vigorous activity are linked to substantial changes, says Stamatakis. “Four and a half minutes are associated with approximately 35 to 50% lower risk for incident cardiovascular disease,” he says.
How can you tell if exercise counts as “vigorous?”
“If you can speak comfortably, that means that you are still in the moderate zone,” says Stamatakis. “When you enter the vigorous zone, you will get out of breath.” Vigorous exercise is often fairly uncomfortable, and most people who don’t exercise often are unlikely to be able to sustain it for more than a minute or two at a time.