Nowadays it is very common that time does not reach us to do everything we want to do, this includes carrying out some physical activity, which should be a habit in our lives. A recent study revealed a surprising fact about how much time you should dedicate to being able to improve your body and your health.
A training that should be part of our life
A report was analyzed where 55,000 Americans were asked how much they had run regularly in the last few months. About a quarter of the interviewees were runners, so they reported the duration, distance, frequency, and speed at which they ran. The rest of the people were not runners. The runners were divided into five groups according to the duration , distance and speed of their races.
Over a 15-year period, runners were 45% less likely to die from heart disease and 30% less likely to die from other causes, compared to non-runners. However, all groups showed a similar reduction in the risk of death from heart disease . For example, those who ran 51 minutes, which is about 5 to 10 minutes a day had a similar decrease in the risk of death as those who ran 176 minutes a week.
Duck-Chul Lee, one of the lead authors, from the Department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University, mentioned that busy schedules are one of the strongest barriers to participating in physical activities , and this study may motivate women people to start or keep running and make it a healthy goal in their lives. He also added that people who start running should increase the time they dedicate to it as they gain experience and function at the appropriate speed , according to their physical condition.
Dr Chi Pang from the Institute of Population Health Sciences in Taiwan said that running is the best option for younger people as they are sometimes pressured by time spent on other activities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as brisk walking or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity such as running each week. Of course, what is clear is that physical activity , even if you do little throughout the week, is much more beneficial than doing nothing.
Study limitations
The researchers noted that the people who participated in this study were asked to remember how much they had run in the last three months, which they may not always remember accurately, and the study did not take into account the diet of each person, which which could have affected the results.
References
- Rachael Rettner, Even a 5-Minute Run Is Great for Heart Health. For Live Science
