Women benefit

Short “sprints” halve women’s heart risk

One to two minutes of intense physical activity three times a day has a very positive effect on women's hearts.

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According to Australian scientists, women could reduce their cardiovascular risk extremely easily. Just one to four minutes of intense physical activity a day reduces the frequency of heart attacks and other acute heart problems by half. 

The classic recommendations for physical activity to reduce mortality from all causes and especially from cardiovascular disease are clear and still apply: 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of intensive training (e.g. running etc.) per week.

However, many people find it difficult to integrate this into their daily lives - as a result, "good New Year's resolutions" often remain unrealized.

Short "sprints" in everyday life already help
Another concept also promises help, statistically significant at least for women: vigorous intermittent physical activity in daily life (VILPA). This involves, for example, short bursts of intense physical activity lasting one to two minutes three times a day. What is meant by this: climbing stairs quickly, jumping while waiting for food to heat up from the microwave, a short break with a quick march around the block, a bit of jumping rope in front of the TV.

Über die Studie

• Emmanuel Stamatakis from the University of Sydney in Australia and British experts have now published a study on this in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The participants came from the British UK Biobank and wore an accelerometer on their wrist for seven days between 2013 and 2015, which recorded their physical activity.

• Scientists included 22,368 people who stated that they did not engage in any sporting activities in their free time and took a maximum of one walk per week. The comparison group consisted of 58,684 people who took part in leisure-time sporting activities and went for a walk more than once a week.

• The results were striking. When comparing VILPA episodes and the frequency of heart attacks, strokes or heart failure, there were significant differences over an observation period of 7.9 years. "In women, daily VILPA duration showed an almost linear dose-response relationship with all major cardiovascular events and separately for myocardial infarction and heart failure. In men, however, the dose-response curves were less clear," wrote the Ärztezeitung.

The finding that even small daily doses of intense physical activity are associated with a reduction in cardiovascular events and mortality is particularly encouraging for people who do not engage in structured exercise.

Yasina Somani von der Universität von Leeds

Link not so clear for men
Among women, an average total exercise duration of only 3.4 minutes versus no VILPA units resulted in a 45 percent reduction in the incidence of cardiac incidents. The risk of heart failure even fell by two thirds and the risk of heart attack by half.

Even shorter VILPA units had an effect: "The finding that even small daily doses of intense physical activity are associated with a reduction in cardiovascular events and mortality is particularly encouraging for people who do not engage in structured sport," said Yasina Somani from the University of Leeds.