Report: 10 Minutes of Exercise Per Day Effective

About 10 minutes per day-precisely, 72 minutes per week-of physical exercise is still enough to yield improvements in your overall physical health (although more than that is certainly better still), says a newly published report, according to Medical News Today.

The research was conducted in the US by Laboratory of Preventive Medicine Research director at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana State University, Dr Timothy Church, MD, PhD, MPH, and some colleagues. 72 minutes per week is less than half the amount of recommended minimum physical exercise as given by the CDC and health organizations in general.

The research involved 464 sedentary and overweight or obese postmenopausal women with a mean age of 57 and mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of 32. The women were initially tested on their aerobic fitness on a stationary bicycle, before then being randomly split up into four groups. Three out of these four groups did moderate-intensity exercise on treadmills or stationary bikes three to four times per week for six months. The fourth group did not follow any exercise regimen.

Among the three exercising groups, one was charged with exercising for 72 minutes per week; a second, 136 minutes per week; and the third, 192 minutes per week. Trained supervisors made sure the women kept up their will and energy enough to do their assigned research regimens. At the end of the six month period, the women were all tested on the stationary bike for aerobic fitness once again.

The study results showed that every woman who had done any of the three different workout regimens had improved her cardiovascular fitness, irrespective of age, starting weight, initial fitness level, ethnicity, or race. Those who had worked out for 72 minutes had a four percent improvement in overall fitness. Those who had worked out for 136 minutes were improved six percent, and the 192-minute group was improved by 8%. The group of women who worked out the most had a slight dip in blood pressure levels, while the other two groups saw no change. None of the women had any significant weight loss from the exercise.

"In this study, previously sedentary, overweight or obese postmenopausal women experienced a graded dose-response change in fitness across levels of exercise training... Nearly all individuals understand that there are health benefits associated with physical activity, yet approximately one in five U.S. adults report no physical activity at all," the report states. The great majority of people who do not get much if any exercise say they lack the time.

Editorialist I-Min Lee, MBBS, ScD, works in the preventive medicine department at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Brigham & Women's Hospital, writes, "((the results of the study are)) encouraging, because they indicate that an achievable dose of physical activity may be sufficient to begin reaping health benefits."

Sources:

Web MD

Medical News Today