Vigorous physical activity (VPA) is a time-efficient way to achieve recommended physical activity levels. According to research published in the ‘European Heart Journal’, a bit harder physical activity of 8 minutes can reduce the incidence of disease and mortality.

The prospective study was conducted on 71,893 adults from the UK Biobank cohort with wrist-worn accelerometry. VPA volume (min/week) and frequency of short VPA bouts (≤2 min) were measured. The dose-response associations of VPA volume and frequency with mortality [all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer], and CVD and cancer incidence were examined after excluding events occurring in the first year. During a mean post-landmark point follow-up of 5.9 years (SD ± 0.8), the adjusted 5-year absolute mortality risk was 4.17% for no VPA, 2.12% for >0 to <10 min, 1.78% for 10 to < 30 min, 1.47% for 30 to < 60 min, and 1.10% for ≥60 min. The 'optimal dose' was 53.6 (50.5, 56.7) min/week [hazard ratio (HR): 0.64 (0.54, 0.77)] relative to the 5th percentile reference (2.2 min/week). The 'minimal' volume dose (50% of the optimal dose) was ∼15 (14.3, 16.3) min/week for all-cause [HR: 0.82 (0.75, 0.89)] and cancer [HR: 0.84 (0.74, 0.95)] mortality, and 19.2 (16.5, 21.9) min/week [HR: 0.60 (0.50, 0.72)] for CVD mortality. There was an inverse linear association between VPA frequency and CVD mortality. 27 (24, 30) bouts/week were associated with the lowest all-cause mortality.

The study concluded that VPA of 15-20 min/week was associated with a 16-40% lower mortality HR, with further decreases up to 50-57 min/week which hints that reduced health risks may be attainable through relatively modest amounts of VPA accrued in short bouts across the week.

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