Carrying heavy shopping bags or climbing the stairs in short bursts can slash the chances of a heart attack by half in women, a research project suggests.
The day-to-day activities can help to stave off heart problems in those who are otherwise inactive.
Scientists said making the incidental exercises a lifestyle habit could be “a promising option” for women who do not like or cannot undertake structured exercise.
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The study used data from more than 22,000 British men and women aged between 40 and 79 who admitted they did not work out regularly.
Each wore physical-activity trackers for almost 24 hours a day for seven days between 2013 and 2015.
Their health was monitored through hospital and mortality records, which tracked “major adverse cardiovascular events” such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure until November 2022.
High-intensity physical activity that forms part of a daily routine is known as vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.
Middle-aged women who averaged 3.4 minutes a day had their chances of experiencing a major cardiovascular event cut by 45 per cent.
They were 51 per cent less likely to have a heart attack and 67 per cent less likely to develop heart failure than women who did no such activity.
Even doing around one-and-a-half minutes of vigorous activity daily cut the risk of heart attack by a third and the risk of heart failure by 40 per cent.
This is particularly significant because women tend to have a lower level of cardiorespiratory fitness than men, the researchers said.
Lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor at the University of Sydney, said: “Making short bursts of vigorous physical activity a lifestyle habit could be a promising option for women who are not keen on structured exercise or are unable to do it.
“As a starting point, it could be as simple as incorporating throughout the day a few minutes of activities like stair climbing, carrying shopping (or) uphill walking.”
Professor Stamatakis added: “This should not be seen as a quick fix – there are no magic bullets for health. But our results show that even a little bit of higher intensity activity can help and might be just the thing to help people develop a regular physical activity – or even exercise – habit.”
The benefits were not so great among men, with those who averaged 5.6 minutes of high-intensity activity each day only 16 per cent less likely to suffer a major cardiovascular event compared with men who did none.
Similarly a minimum of 2.3 minutes per day was associated with only an 11 per cent risk reduction, according to the findings, which were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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