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The short run

Running for as little as five minutes a day could significantly lower a person’s risk of dying prematurely.

22amazon_show-slide-7AJL-largeHorizontal375-v2I have a lot of experience with running and some with meditation. So I found two recent articles about shorter forms of both activities pretty interesting. It’s not about gaming a system but what is most effective. My post on meditation is the next post above this one.

Here’re some of the interesting points from a NYT article about the benefits  short runs.

Running for as little as five minutes a day could significantly lower a person’s risk of dying prematurely, according to a large-scale new study of exercise and mortality,” suggesting “that the benefits of even small amounts of vigorous exercise may be much greater than experts had assumed.”

“The runners’ risk of dying from any cause was 30 percent lower than that for the non- runners, and their risk of dying from heart disease was 45 percent lower than for non runners.”

“As a group, runners gained about three extra years of life compared with those adults who never ran.”

Remarkably, these benefits were about the same no matter how much or little people ran.

People running for longer times “didn’t live significantly longer those who ran the least, including people running as little as five or 10 minutes a day at a leisurely pace of 10 minutes a mile or slower.”

“The study did not directly examine… whether running was the only exercise that provided such benefits. The researchers did find that in general, runners had less risk of dying than people who engaged in more moderate activities such as walking.”

“Instead, it’s likely that exercise intensity is the key to improving longevity,”… “Running just happens to be the most convenient way for most people to exercise intensely.”

If “… after trying for a solid five minutes, you’re just not enjoying running, switch activities. Jump rope. Vigorously pedal a stationary bike. Or choose any other strenuous activity. Five minutes of taxing effort might add years to your life.”