I don’t know about you but I love a good acronym. 😉 And today I have a new one for you…and for me!
V.I.L.P.A.
Or Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity.
VILPA is defined as short bursts of physical movement and have been found to significantly decrease the risk of dying, at least according to UK researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis. You can read the full study here in Nature magazine.
To assess this, Stamatakis and colleagues analyzed data from devices worn for over 5.5 years by 25, 241 participants with a mean age of 62.
The study found that three bouts of VILPA per day, lasting only one to two minutes each, leads to a 40% decrease in cancer mortality risk and a near 50% decrease in cardiovascular disease mortality risk. (In case you aren’t aware, these are the top two leading causes of death today!)
And so what does this mean? To me, what I interpret from this is that all activity counts, regardless of duration. That’s incredibly good news, especially for the non-exercisers in the crowd. I am obviously a huge proponent of formal exercise but if for some reason this just isn’t something you are going to do then know that even small bouts of vigorous activity can make a big difference!
And so may I suggest that the next time you are lying on your couch watching a show and don’t want to get up, rethink that. Just one or two quick walks up the stairs, during those annoying commercials that some streaming devices are putting in now, could literally mean the difference between life and death. (Just don’t trip on the stairs please!)
Examples of VILPA:
- carrying heavy grocery bags
- climbing a set of stairs
- walking up a hill
- vigorous house work
- digging in the garden
- shoveling snow
- walking quickly for a short period of time
- sitting down and standing up quickly many times
Happy moving everyone!
