Small Doses of Exercise Count

As a fitness instructor, I meet a lot of people at the gym where I teach. I will often see the same people for weeks and then they are gone.

Sometimes they never come back. Many of them return after a couple of months. They are often trying to lose the weight they gained back when they stopped exercising.

If you ask them where they’ve been, most will tell you they didn’t have time for the gym.

Is that really true?

I think there’s a misconception about working out. You don’t have to exercise every other day to see the benefits. Yes, federal guidelines recommend two and a half hours every week. But you can still reap some healthy rewards by exercising 90 minutes per week – or roughly 15 minutes ever day.

A group of researchers found that doing this modest amount of exercise can reduce your risk of death by 14 percent and add three years to your life expectancy. The study, published in the The Lancet, also shows that 15 minutes of daily exercise gave people a 10 percent reduced risk of dying from some type of cancer. And for every additional 15 minutes of daily exercise, the odds improved.

“If the minimum amount of exercise we suggest is adhered to, mortality from heart disease, diabetes and cancer could be reduced,” the authors of the study wrote. “This low volume of physical activity could play a central part in the global war against non-communicable diseases, reducing medical costs and health disparities.”

So if you’re one of those people who doesn’t have time to exercise, maybe it’s time to make time.

Even just 15 minutes.

Alice Warchol is a fitness instructor and freelance health writer.

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