If you have a desk job, it’s more than likely that your life is pretty sedentary during office hours. Yes, we all know that we’re supposed to go for a walk at lunchtime, that we should stand up more and that our hips are suffering from too much sitting, but it’s not always easy finding the time to exercise – especially if you have kids/a demanding job/an overly active social life.

But it really is worth trying to fit small nuggets of movement into our day. In fact, according to a new study, under five minutes of intense exercise (ie activity that gets you huffing and puffing) a day is enough to reduce the risk of some cancers by a whopping 35%.

Scientists from the University of Sydney have found that a total of just 4.5 minutes can make a profound difference. Published in JAMA Oncology, the study got over 22,000 ‘non-exercisers’ to wear a tracker for over seven years. Throughout, researchers monitored their health.

They found that under five minutes of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) was associated with a substantially lower cancer risk compared to those who didn’t perform vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activities.

VILPA activities (which last for around a minute at a time) include vigorous housework, carrying heavy shopping bags, bursts of power walking or running around after kids.

“VILPA is a bit like applying the principles of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to your everyday life,” said lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis of the Charles Perkins Centre.

“It’s quite remarkable to see that upping the intensity of daily tasks for as little as four to five minutes a day, done in short bursts of around one minute each, is linked to an overall reduction in cancer risk by up to 18%, and up to 32% for cancer types linked to physical activity.”

According to Stamatakis, those cancers that are related to inactivity include:

• breast cancer
• endometrial cancer
• colon cancer

It’s worth noting that inactivity isn’t the only reason one might develop those diseases. Colon cancer has been linked to smoking, diet, alcohol, inflammatory bowel disease and having a specific gene mutation (like Dame Deborah James). Breast cancer can also be hereditary in people with the BRCA1 gene. Endometrial cancer has a number of complicated risk factors.

But it’s still worth noting that obesity and inactivity are key risks for each cancer.

The study found that you need to do a minimum of three minutes of daily VILPA to reap the benefits, and that most VILPA happened in bouts of up to 60 seconds. 

As the study (whose participants had an average age of 62) was an observational one, researchers can only conclude seeing a strong link rather than objective cause and effect. They do, however, believe that doing small bouts of activity that leave you breathless causes rapid cardio fitness improvement, and it’s that which may explain the reduced cancer risk. 

They also suggest that being physically active improves chronic inflammation and improved insulin sensitivity as possible reasons for the reduced cancer risk. More research is needed to say for certain.

Bottom line? Take the stairs, carry your shopping and break up Zoom meetings with a spot of vigorous sweeping or a power walk around the block. Your body will thank you in the long run. 

Images: Getty