Do you have limited time for exercise? A new study published by researchers from University College London and the University of Sydney indicates that adding just five minutes of exercise a day brings benefits.

Study participants had a drop in blood pressure by adding five minutes a day of vigorous exercise, such as jogging, stair climbing or cycling. The study suggests that more noticeable effects occurred when building up to about 20 minutes of exercise.

RELATED STORY | Study shows that doing 11 minutes of exercise a day can save your life

Replacing any less active behavior with five minutes of exercise could lower systolic blood pressure by 0.68 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure by 0.54, the researchers said.

University College London said that a 2 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure and a 1 mmHg reduction in diastolic blood pressure equates to around a 10% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Our findings suggest that for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of exercise such as walking,” said Jo Blodgett, first author of the study. “The good news is that regardless of your fitness level, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on your blood pressure. What is unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from climbing the stairs to a short bike ride, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.”

RELATED STORY | Women may obtain the health benefits of exercise more effectively than men

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only 24.2 percent of U.S. adults meet the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.

The CDC advises adults to do at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, in addition to two days of strength training.

“The finding that getting as little as five extra minutes of exercise or vigorous incidental activity per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure values ​​underscores how powerful short bouts of higher-intensity exercise can be for blood pressure management,” Emmanuel Stamatakis, co-senior. the study author said.

The results of the study were published in Circulation magazine.