Authors Urge Less Focus on Exercise Amount

It may be a mistake to urge people who are inactive to aim for 150 minutes a week of exercise, 2 new articles suggest. Rather, the authors say, the main message should be simply to sit less and move more. Health experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate activity, such as brisk walking, each week. But both new articles argue that the research shows some activity is better than none. Among older adults, only 10% to 15% get the recommended amount. And asking people to aim for 150 minutes may seem overwhelming. This may discourage people from making any changes at all, the authors say. One of the articles reviewed 6 studies on physical activity and its effects on health. It found that walking from 1 to 74 minutes a week can reduce the risk of death from any cause by 19%. So both articles argue that public health messages should focus on moving more, rather than push for a specific amount of exercise. This would include sitting less and breaking up periods of sitting with a few minutes of walking or other activity. The journal BMJ published the articles. HealthDay News wrote about them January 21.