Just five minutes of exercise twice a day can give inactive people a major boost to heart health, new research shows.
Scientists found that brief bursts of activity—even as short as five minutes—can significantly improve cardiovascular fitness (CRF), a key measure of how efficiently the heart, lungs and blood vessels deliver oxygen to the muscles.
Better CRF has long been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, heart attack and early death.
The findings, drawn from 11 studies involving 414 inactive men and women with body mass indexes ranging from normal to obese, show that ‘exercise snacks’—five-minute sessions done twice daily, three times a week—can make a measurable difference.
Previous research has shown that climbing stairs or walking briskly for short periods can boost heart health. In younger and middle-aged adults, the most common short workout was stair climbing, either at home or on a gym machine.
Among older adults, gentle leg exercises and tai chi—the Chinese martial art that combines flowing movements with controlled breathing—were most effective.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers said: ‘Their easy integration into daily routines addresses common barriers, such as lack of time and low motivation.
‘In addition to research efforts, public health policies should aim to integrate exercise snacks into daily life by encouraging movement breaks throughout the day.’
Exercising for as little as five minutes, twice a day, can boost your cardiovascular fitness, new research has suggested
These quick and easy exercises were found to improve cardiovascular fitness (CRF) by between 4.6 and 17 per cent across the studies reviewed.
However, researchers saw no significant improvements in muscular endurance, strength or cholesterol levels.
Around 70 per cent of participants were women, and those who showed the biggest gains in CRF were aged between 19 and 44.
The authors noted several limitations, including small sample sizes, and said more research was needed to confirm the results.
They also cautioned that the findings may not be fully representative, as the studies did not include equal numbers of male and female participants.
The research, conducted in Australia, Canada, China and the UK, involved exercise programmes lasting between four and 12 weeks.
It comes amid a worrying rise in heart-related deaths in the UK, which have soared by 18 per cent—from 18,693 to 21,975—between 2019 and 2023.
According to the British Heart Foundation, there has also been a 21 per cent increase in people being diagnosed with heart failure since 2020—the highest on record.
The number of people with atrial fibrillation—an irregular heartbeat—has also reached a record high, rising from 1.48 million to 1.62 million over the same period.
The British Heart Foundation analysis revealed an 83 per cent surge in the number of patients waiting for planned heart treatment in England, from the start of the decade to March 2025.
Waiting lists have also grown in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The charity warned that the shift marks a reversal of decades of progress, during which annual deaths from heart attacks and strokes had halved since the 1960s.
Experts suggest the rise may be fuelled by unhealthy diets and increased consumption of processed foods, the effects of Covid on the heart and circulatory system, and ongoing disruption to GP and hospital care.
Just last year, a separate study found that simple, everyday movements such as carrying shopping bags or climbing stairs in short bursts could halve the risk of heart attack in women.
Researchers said turning these ‘incidental exercises’ into a regular habit could be a ‘promising option’ for women who dislike or struggle with structured workouts.
Middle-aged women who averaged just 3.4 minutes of such activity a day were 45 per cent less likely to suffer a major cardiovascular event. They were 51 per cent less likely to have a heart attack and 67 per cent less likely to develop heart failure than those who did none.
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