The human body wasn’t designed to be sedentary. For almost all our history, we’ve constantly been on the move. Yet in modern, developed societies, many of us spend the majority of our days seated. This is dangerous. One study found that people who sit for 12-13 hours per day—regardless of whether or not they exercise—are more than twice as likely to die compared to people who sat the least.
But if our jobs and livelihoods depend on us being sedentary, and being sedentary is a risk to our health, it begs the question: what is the “minimum effective dose” of movement per day in order to stave off the risks of a sedentary lifestyle?
That’s a question a recent study in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal aimed to answer. In particular, they wanted to find out how often sedentary people should move, and for how long.
They asked participants in the test group to take regular breaks from sitting (e.g., a break every 30-60 minutes), and to walk for a short period of time (e.g., between 1-5 minutes). They focused on measuring changes in both glucose levels and blood pressure, because poor scores in these numbers are correlated with higher prevalence of heart disease.
What they found was a substantial decrease in both glycemic response as well as blood pressure for participants who took a 5 minute break every 30 minutes when compared to the control group. The key thing was achieving an increase in heart rate for those 5 minutes. So this can be achieved with anything from hopping on a stationary bike, vacuuming, or even dancing around the house.
There are lots of caveats to this study, of course. It’s a small sample size, and there could be a novelty affect that wears off. But intuitively, it makes sense. Even if it feels disruptive to a productive day, it’s made me think about how I can incorporate more movement into my day.