Walk up a hill for four minutes to halve heart disease risk

Short bursts of vigorous activity can almost halve the chances of a heart attack—and that’s especially true for middle-aged women.

Just 90 seconds of vigorous exercise every day can protect the heart, and that’s great news for people who don’t go to the gym, say researchers from the University of Sydney.

Simple tasks such as climbing the stairs, carrying heavy shopping, or walking uphill could be enough, just as long as it lasts for at least 90 seconds, although the optimum time2 is around four minutes every day.

The researchers analysed data from 22,368 people—made up of 13,018 women and 9,350 men aged between 40 and 79—who didn’t regularly exercise, such as going to the gym or jogging.  Their activity was tracked for two years, and the rate of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, was also recorded.

Women especially benefited from ‘vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity’ (VILPA), and those who averaged around 3.4 minutes a day were 51 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 67 percent less likely to develop heart failure compared to women who didn’t do any vigorous exercise.

Women who did VILPA from between 1.2 and 1.6 minutes also saw benefit.  Their chances of suffering a heart attack were 33 percent lower, and they were 40 percent less likely to have heart failure.

Men didn’t benefit anywhere near as much from VILPA.  Men who vigorously exercised for 5.6 minutes were just 16 percent less likely to suffer from serious heart disease.

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