The Two Minute Walk: Key to Longevity

You’ve read that right: the two minute walk can result in a longer life.

What’s the catch? You’ll need to be consistent and accumulate 30 minutes or more of moving time. That’s 15 up-and-about’s throughout the day and evening too. An hour of moving time is even better.

Your goal is to create the accepted 30-minute a day of exercise which as scientists have discovered can be beneficial even when taken in bite-sized bits of activity. 

A recent study found that “Those who moved more often, especially if they managed about an hour in total of physical activity over the course of the day, cut their mortality risk in half… .”

“And it did not matter how they accumulated those minutes. If people walked continuously for five minutes or longer, meaning in exercise bouts, they lowered their risk of dying young.

“But they gained the same benefit if they walked sporadically in short but repeated spurts, as long as they moved often.

“The message is that all physical activity counts,” says Dr. William Kraus, a professor at Duke University who conducted the study with researchers from the National Cancer Institute.

“The little things that people do every day,” like walking from their cars to the office or climbing a flight of stairs, “can and do add up and affect the risk for disease and death,” he says.”

“If you can’t go for a long walk,” he says, “a few short walks are likely to be just as good for you.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/well/move/walking-exercise-minutes-death-longevity.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fphys-ed&action=click&contentCollection=move&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

The Two Minute Walk Taken Every 20 Minutes: More Health Benefits

What happens when the two-minute walking break is taken not only consistently but also in a regular pattern? Research shows there’s even more benefit if your efforts are timed, happening every 20 minutes. 

Taking a two-minute walk every 20 minutes re-sets the body’s mechanisms put on hold and under stress by the inactivity of sitting.  Positively impacted are: blood pressure and glucose levels; aching muscles and learning abilities. Lessened are risks for cardio-vascular disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. 

Then there’s the added benefit: expending more calories as you move more. Consider: whether you’re at the office or at home: a 2 minute walkabout every half hour results in 59 extra calories expended and a 5 minute walkabout every half hour results in an 132 additional calories expended.

Experiencing muscle or joint aches and pains: moving often, taking breaks from sitting of even 30 seconds or one minute every 20 minutes impacts discomfort.

Then consider what happens when you engage in more activity every 20 minutes. Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People, found cultures around the world whose residents live the healthiest and longest are “nudged into physical activity (such as house work, yard work, kitchen work with no mechanized appliances) every 20 minutes, my team estimates. This activity not only burned 500 to 1,000 calories a day; it also kept their metabolisms humming at a high rate.”

Barbara and Kevin Kunz, Un-Sit Your Life