More than 1,800 cancer cases diagnosed in Australia this year are likely to be the direct result of physical inactivity and its links to obesity.  

A Sydney University study has shown that the more you move at a higher intensity as part of your daily living, the lower your risk of developing cancer, especially the 13 types associated with physical inactivity. 

These include liver, lung, kidney, gastric cardia (a type of stomach cancer), endometrial, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, colorectal, head and neck, bladder, breast, and oesophageal cancer. 

A total of just four-and-a-half minutes of vigorous activity that makes you huff and puff during daily tasks could reduce the risk of some cancers by up to 32%. 

The basic idea is that, instead of condensing your daily exercise into a single session, you have micro-workouts throughout the course of your day. 

Study participants – 25,000 non-exercisers with an average age of 62 – wearing wrist accelerometers, were tracked daily and their clinical health records recorded over seven years to monitor for cancer. 

As few as four or five minutes of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) was associated with a substantially lower cancer risk compared to no VILPA. 

Activities could be what you do every day – but done in short bursts and with gusto. These include vigorous housework, carrying heavy shopping around the grocery store, bursts of power walking, or playing high-energy games with the grandkids. 

Lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis of the university’s Charles Perkins Centre said adults who don’t exercise are at increased risk of developing certain cancers such as breast, endometrial, or colon, but until recently the impact of less structured forms of vigorous physical activity was unable to be measured. 

“It’s only through the advent of wearable technology like activity trackers that we are able to look at the impact of short bursts of incidental physical activity done as part of daily living,” he said. 

“If we take opportunities to get out of breath and raise the heart rate for a couple of minutes and repeat this process consistently several times a day, there are very promising health benefits. As I let my coffee brew in the morning, I do dips on my worktop or a set of push-ups.” 

Those who practise VILPA endorse the study’s findings.  

“I can see the value of persevering with VILPA,” said one exerciser. “Lacking the time or discipline to hit the gym every day, exercise snacking has proved surprisingly easy to incorporate into my working schedule.”