Climbing the stairs a little faster or running to catch your bus is not just a matter of morning improvisation. According to a large study published in the European Heart Journalthese moments when you find yourself really out of breath could count more for your health than long, leisurely sessions.
The researchers followed tens of thousands of people for several years, not only looking at how much they moved but more importantly how much of that movement was really intense. Their observation shakes up habits: the key would not be to move for longer, but to run out of breath a little more often.
A large study on intense physical activity and eight major diseases
The international team relied on the UK Biobank cohort, with 96,408 adults fitted with an accelerometer bracelet for a week, and a further 375,730 reporting their activity. Objective: measure the share ofintense physical activity in overall weekly movements, then link it, over approximately nine years of follow-up, to the risk of eight major diseases (cardiovascular diseases, arrhythmia, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases such as arthritis or psoriasis, fatty liver disease, chronic respiratory and kidney diseases, dementia) and to all-cause mortality.
Compared to those who never didvigorous physical activityparticipants with the highest share of intense effort presented a risk of dementia reduced by 63%, a risk of type 2 diabetes reduced by 60% And all-cause mortality reduced by 46%. These gains appeared even though the total time spent in intense effort remained modest.
For Professor Minxue Shen, from the Xiangya School of Public Health at South Central University (China) and co-author of the study, “We know that physical activity reduces the risk of chronic disease and premature death, and there is growing evidence that vigorous activity provides more benefits per minute than moderate activity, but questions remain about the importance of intensity relative to total volume of activity“.
Why exercise intensity is such a game changer
Analyzes show that, for an equivalent volume of activity, a greater proportion of intense efforts is almost always associated with a lower risk of disease. For inflammatory diseases such as osteoarthritis or psoriasis, it is above all the intensity that counts. For serious cardiovascular disease, atrial fibrillation, chronic respiratory disease and dementia, intensity weighs more heavily than simple duration, although total time spent moving still plays a role. For diabetes, metabolic fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease and mortality, duration and intensity combine.
On a biological level, “Vigorous physical activity appears to trigger specific responses in the body that lower-intensity activity cannot fully replicate. During vigorous activity, the type that makes you short of breath, your heart pumps more efficiently, your blood vessels become more flexible, and your body improves its ability to use oxygen“, explains Professor Shen. “Vigorous activity also appears to reduce inflammation, which may explain the strong associations seen with inflammatory diseases like psoriasis and arthritis. It may also stimulate chemicals in the brain that help keep brain cells healthy, which could help lower the risk of dementia.“.
A few minutes of intense exercise per day, without necessarily going to the gym
Good news for busy schedules: the benefits appear with even a small dose. “Our results suggest that including a portion of vigorous activity in your physical activity can provide substantial benefits. This doesn’t require going to the gym. Adding short bursts of activity that make you slightly out of breath into everyday life, such as taking the stairs quickly, walking briskly between errands, or actively playing with children, can make a real difference. Even 15 to 20 minutes per week of this type of effort, or a few minutes per day, was linked to significant health benefits“, says Professor Shen.
However, he recalls that “Vigorous activity may not be safe for everyone, especially older adults or those with certain health problems. For them, any increase in movement remains beneficial, and the activity must be adapted to each person“. The study also suggests that future recommendations could better take into account the “composition” of activity, by personalizing the proportion of intense exercise according to the risk of cardiovascular, inflammatory, metabolic diseases or dementia.