Lovers of vigorous exercise aren’t the only ones who get health benefits from physical activity. Lowerkey workouts — even activities you’d never think of as exercise — can also improve your well-being, studies find. New research shows just how impactful any type of movement can be. Compared to women who get less exercise, those who get lots of light physical activity may have up to a 42 per cent lower risk of dying from coronary problems, such as heart attacks, and a 22 per cent lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, the study says.
Light activity includes most of the movements of daily life, says study co-author Andrea LaCroix. Walking around, getting dressed, checking the mail, pruning the garden and doing dishes all count. “Those are examples of daily life activities that we don’t think of as exercise, but we spend a lot of time doing and they involve movement,” LaCroix said.
Researchers examined data from almost 6,000 healthy women ages 63 and older, all of whom wore fitness trackers to record activity levels for a week. During a follow-up period of up to five years, 143 people developed coronary heart disease and another 570 developed some type of cardiovascular disease, which can include heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
Women who appeared to be getting the biggest health boost from light exercise were doing lots of it — between 5.6 and 10.3 hours per day, compared to less than 3.9 hours per day in the least-active group.
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