Latest news with #activity
Health Line
28-05-2025
- Health
- Health Line
One Small Step for Heart Health: Add 10 Minutes of Exercise to Your Day
Increasing your activity level by 10 minutes each day can make a positive difference in your heart health, both short and long term. The human body is designed for motion. Being physically active helps keep it functioning at its best. Physical activity is beneficial for everyone, no matter your age, fitness level, or health status — and there's a form of exercise out there for everyone. Exercise has both immediate and long-term benefits for the body. It can help you: boost cognitive function reach and maintain a healthy weight strengthen bones and muscles prevent and manage chronic disease When it comes to your heart health specifically, exercise can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD-related mortality. Exercising helps your heart by: strengthening the heart muscle improving blood circulation and vessel function lowering blood pressure increasing HDL (good) cholesterol and lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol reducing inflammation promoting blood sugar regulation improving cardiac efficiency and cellular oxygenation supporting the parasympathetic nervous system and promoting relaxation You don't need to make a major fitness commitment to see the cardiovascular benefits of exercise. Just 10 minutes of vigorous activity a day can make a positive difference. Why 10 minutes? Ten minutes of exercise a day is a manageable goal for most people. The American Heart Association (AHA) currently recommends adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week for optimal health. That's a little more than 20 minutes each day of moderate intensity exercise or a little more than 10 minutes a day of vigorous exercise. What's vigorous exercise? It's an activity that elevates your heart rate and breathing, usually makes you sweat, and requires enough effort that you won't be able to talk during it without feeling breathless. It's OK if you're not able to hit the 10-minute mark on the first day, or if all 10 minutes aren't 'vigorous.' According to a study from 2022, even 20 minutes of vigorous activity a week (just over 2 minutes each day) may be enough to lower the risk of heart disease by 40%. Find your fitness level Everyone's physical fitness level and ability are different. When you're just beginning, even a brisk walk might be enough to raise your heart rate and breathing significantly. Learning your target heart rate can help you gauge exercise intensity. Generally speaking, your age-predicted maximum heart rate is around 220 minus your age in years. During vigorous activity, your target heart rate should be between 70% and 80% of your age-predicted maximum heart rate. For example, if you're 35 years old, your age-predicted maximum heart rate is 185 beats per minute, and your target heart rate for vigorous activity is between 129 and 157 beats per minute. Pick an activity you enjoy You don't have to add 10 minutes of sprints to your day if you hate running. Select an exercise you're interested in and enjoy helps you combine fitness with pleasure. Effort is what determines an activity's intensity. For example, if you really enjoy biking, you can up your intensity by shifting to a more challenging gear or choosing more demanding trails, such as those with steep inclines. If you're struggling to find time outside of the workday to get in those 10 minutes of exercise, consider using 10 minutes of your lunch break instead. Small bouts of exercise can help your blood sugar levels, too: A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that even 2 minutes of walking after a meal helps control your blood sugar levels and supports cardiometabolic health. Make use of TV commercial breaks There's no need to be bored during commercial breaks while you watch your favorite show. Many body weight exercises can be done right in your living room while you wait, including: air squats burpees jumping jacks high knees mountain climbers Mix in some resistance training While around 10 minutes of vigorous exercise daily is part of the AHA activity recommendations, vigorous aerobic exercise isn't the only type of physical activity that benefits your heart health. Resistance training is also beneficial for your heart health. It involves exercises that require muscle contraction against an external force. According to a scientific statement from the AHA in 2023, 30 to 60 minutes of resistance training a week (that's actually fewer than 10 minutes a day!) can reduce your risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. You can do many body weight resistance exercises just about anywhere, including: lunges planks pushups squats tricep dips Do what you can, when you can Ten minutes of exercise a day is a goal, and it's OK to take small steps toward achieving it. If vigorous exercise is too much at the start, begin with less intensity or be active for a shorter duration. A 10-minute daily increase in any activity can make a positive difference in your health. According to a cohort study from 2022, 10 minutes more of moderate intensity exercise per day, like going on a brisk walk, could result in 7% fewer deaths annually from preventable diseases. The takeaway Exercise is good for your heart, but working out every day isn't always easy. To help improve your cardiovascular fitness, setting a goal to get 10 minutes of exercise each day can get you started in the right direction. It's OK to start slow. When you're just beginning an exercise routine, you don't have to work for 10 minutes straight or maintain a consistently vigorous pace. Increasing your exercise each day in any way can benefit your health.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Top longevity expert flags exercise detail that will help you live to 100 - and it doesn't involve a gym
Getting up from your desk and walking about the office, rather than intense stints at the gym, could be the key to living longer, a top longevity expert says. Dr Gareth Nye, a biomedical expert at the University of Salford, said that living to 100 isn't all down to luck and genetics. 'People who live longer tend to have a higher activity level in their day-to-day lives rather than focus on structured exercised programmes,' he told The Mirror. 'The message here is that trying to incorporate more activity throughout the day is key and avoiding prolonged periods of sitting down. 'Those in offices could switch to standing desks, for example, or look at their commute to make changes,' he suggested. The longevity expert shared this as one of four key tips to help increase your chances of living for a century. According to Dr Nye, boosting longevity is less about strenuous workouts, and more about consistently being active throughout the day, which he called 'whole activity levels'. He said those who get up and move more tend to live longer than those who lead a more sedentary lifestyle. Several studies support avoiding sedentary time to protect your health. One recent piece of research suggests that sitting or lying down for long periods of time could increase your risk of Alzheimer's, regardless of how much exercise you do. Dr Nye added: 'The issue with exercising at a high level is that consistency is often a problem…it is much better overall to work on whole activity levels'. Another one of his tips was to watch what you're putting in your body, including cutting back on alcohol, quitting smoking and avoiding foods that are high in saturated fats. 'The less processing, the better,' the longevity expert explained. 'Meat and vegetables, as free range or organic as possible, will have the least chance of impacting the body negatively. The more processing involved, the more detrimental it is to the body.' Dr Nye highlighted processed meats—such as ham and bacon that have been altered to enhance flavour or extend shelf life—as one food that could limit lifespans due to an increased risk of bowel cancer. He also advised reducing the levels of sugar and salt from your diet, due to links to cardiovascular diseases. For those struggling to get more healthy foods into their diet Dr Nye recommended opting for frozen options that can be easily added to a variety of meals. 'Frozen fruit and vegetables can be just as beneficial and often easier to add to meals to get that content in', he added. Another tip for a longer life offered by Dr Nye was to ensure you get the recommend seven to eight hours of sleep per night. 'Shorter than seven hours of sleep daily is linked to a 12 per cent increased risk of death, with those who sleep over eight hours being linked to a 30 per cent increased chance,' he said. 'It seems that having regular sleep patterns may be the key to getting the most benefit and potentially living longer', the expert added. Studies show that prolonged sleep deficiency can put people at a higher risk for conditions like obesity, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Dr Nye's final tip, knowing your family history for any conditions you should keep track of as well as attending routine health checks. According to the doctor, genetic factors, including disease risk, hormone balance and cell replacement rates, are believed to influence between 20 and 30 per cent of your lifespan. 'About 40 per cent of life expectancy is inherited among generations, meaning you are more likely to live longer if your parents and grandparents did,' he added. Genetic testing, sometimes called genomic testing—which highlights changes in genes that can cause health problems—is mainly used to diagnose rare and inherited health conditions and some cancers. It can also help couples understand the risk of passing on a health condition to their children. However, the NHS advises considering how the results could affect you and others in your family, as there is a chance that the test will provide information about your relatives that was not previously known. Dr Nye's advice comes as data suggests England' bulging waistlines have caused a significant drop in average life expectancy. After decades of progress, attempts to keep people living longer are beginning to fail, with people in England now living roughly nine months less than they did in 2011. Separate data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier this year suggested that a baby boy born in the UK in 2023 could expect to live on average to 86.7 years. Girls still have a longer anticipated lifespan of 90 years, although the gap has been narrowing. As of the latest ONS data, for 2023, there are just over 16,000 centenarians—people who have lived over 100 years—living in the UK.
CTV News
17-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Images show northern lights appearing in Orillia
Supplied photos from shows possible aurora borealis activity in Orillia, Ont., on Sat., May 17, 2025. (Source: Connor Earl Productions/Supplied)
