Brief bursts of everyday movement could help reduce the cardiovascular risks associated with long hours sitting, research suggests, offering a way to become more active without setting aside time for a workout.

A large 2024 study followed more than 22,000 UK participants for eight years, using tracking devices to measure their movement. None regularly undertook purposeful exercise. Researchers found that just four minutes a day of incidental activity, accumulated in bursts lasting less than a minute, could help offset the increased cardiovascular risk associated with sedentary time.

Higher levels of incidental activity could offset risks associated with sitting for more than 11 hours a day. Follow-up research also linked such movement to a lower risk of premature death. These findings describe associations; they do not establish that every small movement offers the same protection.

Nicholas Koemel, the study’s lead researcher and a senior research fellow at Monash University in Australia, suggests climbing stairs, carrying heavy shopping bags and playing with children. Walking faster or parking further from the shops can introduce more movement into an existing routine.

Incidental activity encompasses movement outside deliberate exercise, including cooking, gardening and vacuuming. It is also known as non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT, referring to energy used outside sleeping, eating and deliberate exercise.

Even movement while seated may have benefits. Anantha Narayanan, a research fellow at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, explains that prolonged sitting leaves leg muscles relatively inactive, reducing contractions that help clear glucose from the bloodstream and support circulation.

Fidgeting increases muscle activity and calorie expenditure. One small study found habitual leg shaking used about 16% more energy than sitting still. Narayanan says earlier research suggests leg fidgeting may help maintain blood vessel function and improve blood sugar control; standing while doing so may enhance the benefits. That evidence is more limited than the large study of everyday activity.

For people who find fitness goals daunting, Amanda Daley, professor of behavioural medicine at Loughborough University, recommends adding movement to established habits: calf raises while brushing teeth, leg raises beneath a desk or walking during a telephone call.

Workplace changes can also reduce sedentary time. In one study, Daley and colleagues provided doctors with standing desks, cutting their sitting time by about two hours a day and encouraging more conversations with patients about sitting less. The practical appeal is straightforward: movement need not always require a separate appointment in the diary.