Short bursts of movement throughout the day — no matter how small — can help the heart, especially for women, research published Tuesday found. On average, men in the study did 11 short bursts of vigorous activity during the day, some which lasted less than a minute, and women did about nine. Vigorous activity meant it was high intensity, said Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney, who led the study. Women who got just under 3.5 minutes of vigorous movement a day, however, were found to have a 45% lower risk of any of the heart problems than women who didn’t log any vigorous movement throughout the day. Getting about 5.5 minutes of vigorous movement per day reduced their risk of a major heart problem by 16%.

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Persons: ”, Meagan, Brigham, “ nonexercisers, Emmanuel Stamatakis, —, don’t, “, ” Wasfy, Carol Ewing Garber, ” Garber, Garber, Stamatakis, ” Stamatakis Organizations: British, of Sports Medicine, Centers for Disease Control, University of Sydney, Columbia University Locations: U.S, Boston, New York City