New Study Shows There Is A Less Time Consuming And Way More Efficient Exercise Than Walking!

According to a study published in the European Heart Journal, moderate to vigorous physical activity tends to be much better for your overall health than walking! In fact, it is three times more beneficial, the research’s results show.
The study was able to examine the average activity levels of over 2 thousand adult people of both genders, with a slight majority being women.
They participated in the Framingham Heart Study, using accelerometers, and the findings might change your exercise habits forever!
What an accelerometer does is measure the vibration or acceleration of motion of a certain structure.
Furthermore, cardiopulmonary exercise tests in which a mouthpiece of facemask were used to measure oxygen intake, as well as carbon dioxide exhaling, were performed in the time span of three years, from 2016 to 2019.
These tests were done on stationary cycles for comprehensive fitness evaluations and the participants were also encouraged to take accelerometers home and wear them around their waists for 8 days following the study meeting with Dr. Matthew Nayor.
Nayor is the lead author of the research as well as an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University.
The results found a consistent trend across all categories involved, be it sex, age and even those with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity.
They show that an increase of only 17 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day is equivalent to 2,312 steps walked or reducing 249 minutes of sedentary time, all of these options leading to a 5% higher peak oxygen uptake.
Moderate-vigorous activity refers to a rate of 100 to 129 steps per minute, while vigorous is considered anything that goes above 130.
As a comparison, if you do between 60 and 99 steps in a minute, that is categorized as low-level exertion.
“Our findings provide a very detailed assessment of relations between different types of physical activity and multidimensional cardiorespiratory fitness measures and suggest favorable changes in physical activity [and moderate-vigorous physical activity in particular] are associated with greater objective fitness,” the study explains.
Furthermore, Nayor also talked about how the research came to be during a Q&A session with Boston University’s “The Brink,” revealing that it was meant to provide a better understanding of the links between physical activity and relatively high fitness levels.
“We expected to find that higher amounts of moderate vigorous physical activity, such as exercise, would lead to better peak exercise performance, but we were rather surprised to see that higher intensity activity was more efficient than walking in improving the body’s ability to start and then sustain lower levels of exertion as well. Also, we were uncertain whether the number of steps per day or if less time spent sitting would truly impact peak fitness levels. We found they were associated with higher fitness levels. These findings were consistent across all categories of age, sex, and health, confirming the relevance of maintaining physical activity [all throughout the day] for everyone.”
Nayor went on to suggest that, based on the study, it appears that a big part of the negative effects of living a mostly sedentary life can be undone just by doing some high level physical activity for a bit every day.
The lead researcher also stressed that he and the rest of the specialists involved in the study hope the results they found will be able to help improve many people’s fitness habits and, therefore, their health in the long run.