New Science Suggests That Just 4 Minutes per Day of This Kind of Exercise May Lower Cancer Risk

Turns out, you could slash your risk for certain cancers in the time it takes to listen to your favorite pop song or power walk across the parking lot.

Reviewed by Dietitian Annie Nguyen, M.A., RD

We've been told for decades that walking 10,000 steps per day—or racking up 150 minutes of physical activity per week, no matter what method you choose—should be our goal. But a growing body of scientific evidence is shining a spotlight on the fact that you'll start to accrue some serious gains at levels far lower than that. (For example, we learned last September that walking for 2 minutes after meals can help lower blood sugar.)

If you feel daunted by going from couch to 10,000 steps or 150 minutes, listen up: A new study published July 27, 2023, in the journal JAMA Oncology suggests that just 4 to 5 minutes of "vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity" is enough to significantly lower cancer risk.

Read on to learn more about how the researchers landed at this conclusion. Then we'll explain some of the best workout styles to incorporate into your day to put these findings into practice.

Related: Adding Just 10 Minutes of Exercise per Day Can Improve Health and Slow Aging, According to Science

What This Exercise Study Found

Researchers at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre in Australia noticed that previous studies suggested that adults who don't exercise appear to be at higher risk for developing 13 kinds of cancers (breast, endometrial, colorectal, liver, kidney, lung and more), but noticed that there was a knowledge gap about how much exercise might move the needle.

"More than 1,800 cancer cases diagnosed in Australia this year are likely to be the direct result of physical inactivity," professor Karen Canfell, D.Phil., director of the Daffodil Centre at the University of Sydney, explains in a University of Sydney news release.

Sedentary lifestyles are prevalent here in the U.S. as well: about 6 in 10 American adults don't meet the recommended activity guidelines (those aforementioned 150 minutes of aerobic exercise, plus two full-body strength workouts per week)—and 25% of adults aren't active at all, according to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers involved in this study wanted to try to determine the impact of small bursts of movement. They decided to call these bursts vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA), and they placed everything from vigorous housework and carrying a heavy basket around the supermarket to quick power walking to get the mail or playing active games with kiddos under this umbrella.

"VILPA is a bit like applying the principles of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to your everyday life," Emmanuel Stamatakis, Ph.D., lead author of this study, as well as a professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, adds in the news release.

Related: HIIT vs. LISS: Which Exercise Is Right for You?

Bouts as short as one minute "count," Stamatakis and his team confirm. (By the way, yes, lower-intensity activities like yoga and walking can be effective enough to qualify as exercise, too. But you have to invest more time than you would for VILPA to score health benefits.)

Using data from 22,398 people enrolled in the UK Biobank, a database of biomedical information from more than 500,000 United Kingdom residents often used for research purposes, the researchers dove into details gathered from wrist accelerometers for seven days. Then, they compared these activity rates to the health outcomes noted in clinical health records for seven years. The pool of participants had an average age of 62, and they did not normally exercise or take leisurely walks during their free time. The researchers excluded individuals who had received a previous cancer diagnosis, or who had been diagnosed during the first year (since that was likely not enough time for any VILPA to make a difference on health outcomes). They also controlled for age, smoking status, sleep habits, genetics, diet and body size.

During the seven-year follow-up, the study authors found that 2,356 cancer cases had been diagnosed, and about 1,084 cases were cancers that they think may be less likely if more physical activity was present. About 92% of VILPA bouts lasted about 1 minute, and those who racked up 3½ minutes of VILPA per day appeared to be at 18% lower risk for cancer (compared to their peers who did none). Just 4½ minutes of VILPA daily was linked to 32% lower risk for physical-activity-related cancers, the researchers note. The benefits continue to build with more activity, but that's a significant shift accomplished in a timespan that's equivalent to a couple commercial breaks or one pop song.

The study authors admit that, as of now, they're still unsure of exactly why this occurs. However, they believe VILPA's relationship to lower cancer risk may be related to better cardio-respiratory fitness, changes in insulin sensitivity and lower levels of chronic inflammation.

The Bottom Line

A new Australian study found that cobbling together four minutes of vigorous activity per day—anything from power walking across a parking lot to lifting bags of groceries to chasing a dog or kids will do—is enough to lower your risk for some cancers.

Since the exercise tracking was only done for one week, and considering the study was observational and cannot prove cause and effect, more deep-dives are needed to verify these results.

"We need to further investigate this link through robust trials, but it appears that VILPA may be a promising cost-free recommendation for lowering cancer risk in people who find structured exercise difficult or unappealing," says Stamatakis.

As we continue to learn more, it certainly can't hurt to study up on how to exercise even if it feels like you have literally no time. Then all that's left to do is lace up those shoes and seek out opportunities to get some VILPA—and hopefully work up to mixing those bursts with these 5 best exercises for your health, according to a Harvard doctor.