VILPA: The Exercise You've Never Heard of That Could Save Your Life

Nature Reporter

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Scientists have found that carrying your shopping bags or climbing the stairs could help you live longer.

Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA)—which is defined as short bursts of physical movement—have been found to significantly decrease the risk of dying, study findings published in Nature Medicine show.

This could include anything from one to two minutes of fast walking or walking uphill, carrying a backpack or shopping bags, climbing the stairs, domestic housework or gardening.

Lead author of the study at The University of Sydney, Emmanuel Stamatakis, told Newsweek: "We have known for a long time that leisure time exercise often reaches vigorous intensity and has many health benefits, but we understand less about the health potential of daily movement, especially activities done as part of daily living that reach vigorous intensity. "

To assess this, Stamatakis and colleagues analyzed data from 25,241 participants—who had a mean age of 61.8—who stated that they do not participate in exercise during leisure time.

The data came from wearable devices that captured the unexplored movements in each participant, the study said.

In a period of 6.9 years, 852 of the participants died. The study found that those who engaged in VILPA had much lower risk of cardiovascular and cancer-related mortality, compared to those who did not.

The study found that three bouts of VILPA per day, lasting for one to two minutes, lead to 40 percent decrease in cancer mortality risk, and a near-50 percent decrease in cardiovascular disease mortality risk .

"We were not surprised to find beneficial associations, we knew previously that vigorous physical activity is very potent, especially when it is intermittent, repeated, and regular. But the magnitude of these associations is quite striking, considering how little daily physical activity we are talking about," Stamatakis said.

"What is also very interesting is that there is a good chance that participants in this study did not know that they were doing vigorous intensity physical activity, as the sample of this study was non-exercisers, basically people who were not doing sports, going to gyms, or even recreational walks during their free time."

The findings show that those who do not wish to exercise during their leisure time can still significantly reduce their risk of mortality by partaking in VILPA.

The majority of middle aged and older adults—around 70 to 80 percent—do not exercise regularly, Stamatakis said.

"It is extremely difficult to help them change. For these people in particular, VILPA can offer a great option to enjoy the benefits of physical activity through tweaking the intensity of every-day activities, things that people would do anyway, to reach vigorous intensity for 1 or 2 minutes at the time, several times a day," Stamatakis said.

"VILPA has major feasibility advantages over conventional leisure time exercise as it needs minimal or no time commitment, it does not involve special clothing or other preparations, does not need travelling to a health club or gym, it is free to do, and it does not demand paying fees buying special exercise equipment."

Correction 12/9/22 08:54 a.m ET: This article was corrected to state that Emmanuel Stamatakis was the lead author of the study

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