There has been a new study that gives us a fascinating new insight into exercise. The researchers were asking themselves this key question – How effective are small, realistic changes in physical activity and sedentary behaviour on population-level mortality?
But first, before we get into this, there is a rather important context for all of this.
The Basics – The Big 5 is all you need
If you want a good shot at a long and healthy life, the fundamentals are well known: eat well, sleep well, don’t smoke, limit alcohol, and exercise regularly.
Notice that I did not include any supplements or wellness hacks. Everything else is marginal compared to these.
It is not an exclusive list. Looking after yourself will also involve other factors such as nurturing a good community, creating a sense of purpose for yourself, and also tapping into the guidance of healthcare professionals; regular medical and dental checks, keeping an eye on risk factors such as blood pressure if your family is known to have that risk, etc…
What will not be a surprise to you, or to anybody reading this, will be that big 5 list. It is not a revelation, we all know it. It is familiar because those are the five items that really do deliver. If you want good health, then focus on just those. Together, these account for the vast majority of health outcomes.
This article focuses on exercise.
You are also most probably aware of how it often pans out. We know we need to exercise so we join a gym, but then fail to actually go, or we buy an exercise bike that ends up gathering dust. The intention and ambition was very real, but life edges in demanding other things and so the goal slips and fades.
But wait, via a new study there is some good news here. While it will indeed be truly beneficial if you really did sustain the gym or bike on a regular basis (good on you if you have done so, excellent stuff), what can you do if all that has failed, now what?
You might also feel too old to be doing all that now and have given up because there is no point anymore.
Hit pause on that, because it is not true.
The Big Reveal – Just a little bit of exercise has a huge impact
There are two sources for this new insight:
- The paper itself within The Lancet (Jan 24, 2026): Deaths potentially averted by small changes in physical activity and sedentary time: an individual participant data meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
- A News article in Nature that explains it (Jan 28, 2026): The surprisingly big health benefits of just a little exercise
If you take nothing else away, then grasp hold and remember this bit – ‘Exercise snacks’ and other forms of everyday movement can greatly reduce the risk of heart disease and death.
The Term ‘Exercise Snack’ suggests something small, very small, hence it feels achievable.
Let’s take this step by step.
What exactly did the researchers find?
The reveal is that meaningful health benefits emerge from just small amounts of exercise.
Point 1: Doing nothing except just sitting is bad for you; anything you do is good, even if it is just getting up to go do household tasks.
Point 2: You are never too old, being a bit more mobile and active makes a huge difference no matter what age you are.
We do also know that an estimated 31% of people worldwide don’t meet existing recommendations. That’s a recommendation of 150–300 minutes per week, which can feel like a huge leap. That failure leads many to do nothing at all.
How about just an extra five minutes? That feels far more achievable.
We all face daily choices and this is something you can tap into. Why not take the stairs instead of the elevator? Go collect the mail yourself. Don’t pay somebody to mow the lawn, just do it yourself, etc…
What the new study does is to redefine what counts as physical activity. If you go from doing absolutely nothing, to something quite modest, the new reveal is that it can have a huge beneficial impact.
How exactly did they work all this out?
This insight is possible because many people now wear devices that objectively measure activity minute by minute.
Tapping into that actual data enabled the researchers to work out what truly makes a difference over time. Previously they would have had to depend upon self-reported data, and as I’m sure you are aware we all tell the truth all the time – “I go to the gym every day and vigorously work out for at least an hour“, might be reported, but using actual measurements instead of ambitions means that they get to see what is really going on.
So what does this tell us?
Current guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, but this study shows benefits well below that threshold.
Via the Nature article to establish that insight (which is well worth reading in full) …
…Notably, even people exercising for half the recommended 150 minutes a week showed heart-disease risk reductions that were almost the same as for those who met the guideline. The authors concluded that “the biggest bang for the buck for coronary-heart-disease risk reduction occurs at the lower end of the activity spectrum: very modest, achievable levels of physical activity”.
Be encouraged to not give up via the words “very modest“.
A similar pattern emerges for risk of death (see ‘Movement matters’). A 2022 study analysing 30 years of data from 116,221 adults found that those who did 150–300 minutes of moderate physical activity each week had a 20–21% lower risk of all-cause mortality during the study period than those with almost no moderate activity3. Smaller amounts were already beneficial: 20 to 74 minutes of moderate activity a week resulted in a 9% lower risk of death. People who exercised up to about 600 minutes a week — four times the recommended minimum — had an extra 10–11% reduction in risk. But going beyond that didn’t provide further benefits.
How about “lower risk of dying” as a really strong motivator?
Further Commentary
Many agree with all of this.
If you want to improve your health, live longer and maintain your function into older age, the data is clear. Move. Do anything, but try to get your heart rate up, do some resistance and stretching. Do a tiny bit every day, make it part of your routine, and then do a little more. Do something fun that you enjoy, do it with a partner, or at least do something that is convenient. You don’t have to spend a lot of money or buy fancy equipment. You don’t have to join a gym.
– Dr Steven Novella, who discusses all this here.
“A big part of the benefit comes from going from doing nothing to doing something,”
– Leandro Rezende, an epidemiologist at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil
Stamatakis is among those who began investigating the effect of short bursts of vigorous activity in people’s daily routines.
He says that he has loved movement since his childhood in Greece, when he spent hours playing football after school. The idea of studying how people can enhance their health with everyday movement occurred to him around 2008. Living in Brighton, UK, he grew sick of the local traffic. “I sold my car, and I started walking everywhere and cycling everywhere,” Stamatakis recalls. “It felt so liberating. It felt so nice. I felt more connected with my community. From that point on, I started converting this into a scientific interest.”
– Emmanuel Stamatakis, a researcher specializing in physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney, Australia.
Plain language summary from the study in The Lancet
Small and realistic increases in MVPA of 5 min/day might prevent up to 6% of all deaths in a high-risk approach and 10% of all deaths in population-based approach. Reducing sedentary time by 30 min/day might prevent a smaller, but still meaningful, proportion of deaths in the two risk scenarios.
Side Note: MVPA means activities that raise your heart rate and breathing, like brisk walking, cycling, or climbing stairs.
What can you do – a simple checklist
“Yes, but what can I actually do?“, might be your immediate thought.
If right now you’re doing nothing, then make a start with these …
- Take the stairs
- Walk after meals
- Do 5-minute “movement snacks”
- Stand up every 30 minutes
- Do light resistance (push-ups, squats)
This doesn’t mean more exercise stops helping. Higher activity still improves fitness and health, the biggest risk reduction comes from moving from nothing to something.
What do I do?
Personally, what I do is to schedule a Microsoft Teams meeting most lunchtimes just for myself. Occasionally other meetings may conflict, but most days I get that slot to myself. I go outside and walk, not run, and simply make it a brisk enough walk to raise my heart rate and also stretch a bit as well.
This is also my slot to do podcast catchups, or if I’m caught up on those, then continue whatever audiobook I’m currently into.
One recent variation I also tried was taking a long call while walking around a city park. That worked out OK. It’s not always viable, especially when I also need to take notes.
Make it happen – just do it
If you do nothing else today, move for five minutes. That might be one of the highest-return investments you ever make.
Try this: stand up and walk for five minutes right after reading this.
Do you have any useful tips for others?
If so, then do drop hints, tips and hacks into the comment section below.
Nature has created a 3 min video for this
