IF YOU WANT to be ripped and cause a minor commotion at the pool when you take off your shirt, then you need to put in a lot of time at the gym and create a diet that’s high in lean protein and low in processed carbs and sugar. Getting swole and diced is a lifestyle, but most people don’t have the time or motivation (or genes) to look like a fitness model.
Most people do have the time, however, to exercise enough to improve their health.
You don’t even have to put that much time into your activities each week to confer a benefit. Just meet the minimum recommendation of 30 minutes a day or 150 minutes a week and you’ll reduce your risk of an early death from any cause by a whopping 28%, according to new research from McMaster University in Canada. And that goes for any type of movement that is physical: mowing the lawn, mopping the floor, or hitting the treadmill.
“By including low- and middle-income countries in this study, we were able to determine the benefit of activities such as active commuting, having an active job, or even doing housework,” saidlead study author Scott Lear, M.D., a professor of Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “Going to the gym is great, but we only have so much time we can spend there. If we can walk to work, or at lunchtime, that will help too.”