'Vilpa' your way to a longer life

You might not have to purposely exercise to reduce your risk of heart disease and death; just perform your daily activities more vigorously. – AFP

Good news for anyone who hates sport or doesn’t necessarily have time for long workouts.

A new study from the University of Sydney in Australia, published in the journal Nature Sciences, suggests that performing several short, vigorous one-to-two-minute bursts of physical activity each day could reduce the risk of premature death.

And these bursts of activity, performed as part of day-to-day tasks, are known as Vilpa, which stands for Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity.

According to the researchers, practising three to four one-minute sessions of Vilpa daily was associated with a 49% reduction in death related to cardiovascular (heart) disease and a 40% reduction in all-cause and cancer-related death.

The more sessions in a day, the greater the benefits.

So, doing 11 sessions per day was associated with a 65% reduction in cardiovascular death risk and 49% reduction in cancer-related death risk.

To conduct the study, researchers focused on the activity of 25,000 participants, who were on average, 62 years old and never exercised.

The participants were required to wear an activity tracker on their wrists for a period of seven days.

The researchers also used health data that allowed them to follow the participants for seven years.

The advantage of the Vilpa method is that it can easily be incorporated into the daily life of any person.

Many of the activities or tasks we do in our daily lives can be likened to a form of exercise.

“This could be things like playing with children.

“It could be [that] you see your bus just about to leave, so you have to walk extremely quickly to get the bus.

“It may be that you live in a block of flats and you have to carry that shopping up a flight of stairs.

“It’s those sorts of little bursts that would happen in everyday life,” explains study co-author and University College London professor Mark Hamer to The Guardian.

“Upping the intensity of daily activities requires no time commitment, no preparation, no club memberships, no special skills.

“It simply involves stepping up the pace while walking or doing the housework with a bit more energy,” adds lead author and University of Sydney professor Emmanuel Stamatakis in a news release.

From this perspective, Vilpa seems to be a more accessible and inclusive way to help people get active. – AFP Relaxnews