A new study suggests that small bursts of activity throughout the day may reduce all-cause mortality risk.VILPA, or vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity, can be a part of your everyday routine.Be intentional with finding ways to interject your day with short bursts of activity.

We all know we need to move more. But sometimes, the recommended 150 minutes a week of moderate or 75 minutes a week of vigorous physical activity just seems unreachable—and maybe even unrealistic on your busiest weeks. And when we get to feeling this way, we might fall into a “Why bother?” mindset.

For starters, it’s important to remember that every little bit of physical activity counts and is valuable, even if you don’t hit the recommended amount. Plus, if we break it down, 150 minutes a week could be accomplished by going for a 15- to 20-minute walk each day, which has been shown to lower mortality risk. And even that 15 or 20 minutes can be broken down into two or three 5- or 10-minute walks throughout your day.

We can also sneak more activity into our daily tasks—and it also counts. For example, if you want to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, use your stairs more often. Taking the stairs more often and opting for short bursts of higher-intensity activity throughout your day may also lower your blood pressure. 

Researchers from Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. teamed up to take a closer look at vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA), the type of activity that occurs throughout the day in short bursts—like taking the stairs—and how it might influence mortality risk (the risk of dying early). They published their findings in medRxiv. Let’s break down their findings.

How Was This Study Conducted?

Researchers drew their data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a long-running U.S. study spanning decades. For this current study, researchers pulled data from the years 2011 to 2014. The sample included almost 3,300 participants, about 52% of them female, with an average age of 51. 

All participants in this study wore a wrist accelerometer for at least three days, including at least one weekend day, for a minimum of 16 hours per day. An accelerometer is like a smartwatch that records physical activity, including intensity and duration.

These same participants self-reported that they did not engage in any moderate or vigorous leisure time or formal exercise, including running, basketball, golf, bicycling or walking. This allowed the researchers to focus on activities naturally performed throughout the day. From the accelerometer data, they were also able to calculate and categorize activity levels based on activity type, intensity and duration. These researchers had previously determined in their lab how long it takes to elicit a VILPA response in the body based on certain criteria, including oxygen uptake, maximal heart rate and rate of perceived exertion (also known as the Borg Scale); they found, on average, that it takes 73.5 seconds for an activity to be considered VILPA. 

Researchers also tracked deaths via the National Center for Health Statistics, which is linked to the National Death Index. Researchers considered deaths due to heart disease, cancer and from anything. 

What Did This Study Find?

After running several statistical analyses, including adjusting for demographics, like age, sex and BMI, many findings surfaced, including:

Participating in five bouts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) each day corresponded to a 44% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to no bouts each day.About eight bouts of VILPA per day corresponded with a 54% lower risk of all-cause mortality. Benefits plateaued beyond eight bouts.Accumulating five to six bouts of VILPA lasting less than a minute each per day was associated with a 42% to 47% lower risk of all-cause mortality.About four bouts of moderate intensity that were just over a minute long per day were associated with a 39% lower risk of all-cause mortality. 

Researchers did not find relationships between VILPA and death from heart disease or cancer. They note that this may be due to the low number of participants who died from these diseases. 

Limitations of this study include self-reporting a lot of the information, which leaves room for bias and misrepresentation. Plus, all the data was only measured at baseline, which may not be an accurate representation of long-term activity.

How Does This Apply to Real Life?

If you’re not in the habit of exercising regularly, looking for ways to increase your activity throughout the day is a great place to start. For example, if you work at a desk for most of the day, having a standing desk—or something to elevate your laptop—gets you out of (and off) your seat. While standing, you can do leg raises (front, side and back), squats, heel raises and even walk in place. You can even look for a good deal on a walking pad, which is a small treadmill designed to fit under a desk. There are also ergometers designed for the same purpose, so you can sit and pedal. 

It’s also important to take breaks during the day, which offers both physical and psychological benefits. For example, there is evidence that interspersing small bursts of activity into your day can help clear out brain fog. But it goes even deeper. Taking breaks triggers a special brain pattern known as the default mode network, which fosters creativity, introspection and information integration. So while we often think we don’t have time to take even a two-minute break during our workday, doing so will actually help you think more clearly and increase your productivity. 

Other strategies include using the stairs instead of the elevator, parking at the far end of parking lots so you have to walk farther to the store, increasing your normal walking pace throughout your day, and being less efficient by having to do more trips with groceries from the car to the house (which also works with putting laundry away). 

Use a smaller water bottle so that you have to get up to refill it more frequently. And just drinking more water in general will increase your trips to the bathroom, which also means more movement. And if you work in an office, you can always try to replace some of your daily emails and messages with a walk down to your co-worker’s cubicle for a quick conversation.

Our Expert Take

This study suggests that interspersing short vigorous bouts of activity throughout the day may greatly decrease your chances of dying early. This study offers more evidence that being more physically active in general does your body good. And the benefits go way beyond just mortality risk. For example, while more physical activity was associated with greater decreased risk of dementia, even just one to 35 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a week has been associated with a measurably reduced risk of dementia. All of this to say: every little bit counts, so look for ways to intentionally add more physical activity into your life—no gym needed.