A study at Taiwan found that only by exercising or doing light exercise for 15 minutes, can extend life up to three years. It breaks people's understanding is that the standard exercise for at least 30 minutes a day or five days a week.
Chi Pang Wen, lead researcher from the Taiwan National Health Research Institute said, with 15 minutes of daily exercise such as brisk walking will greatly benefit anyone.
"It's for men, women, young and old smokers, healthy people and unhealthy. The way is most appropriate for everything," Wen said, as quoted by Reuters.
Wen and colleagues, who published their findings in the medical journal The Lancet has conducted a study of 416 000 participants for 13 years. Researchers analyzed medical records and reported levels of physical activity each year.
After accounting for differences in age, weight, gender and various health-related indicators, they found that only a 15 minutes light exercise a day can increase the life expectancy of three years compared with those who remained inactive.
"Exercise the first 15 minutes, the benefits are enormous," said Wen. "We hope these findings will make the sport more attractive to people who are not active, that they can allocate 15 minutes a day, instead of 30 minutes," Wen said.