Studies Show Even 5 Extra Minutes of Daily Exercise Can Add Years to Your Life

Want to add years to your life? Discover how small daily changes in exercise, sleep, and diet can have a huge impact on your longevity and overall health.

Two recent studies show that even small daily lifestyle changes can significantly increase lifespan and improve overall health. One study, led by Norwegian researchers, found that adding just five minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise each day, along with reducing sedentary time by 30 minutes, could prevent a significant number of deaths. Another study, led by Australian researchers, showed that small improvements in sleep, physical activity, and diet together can add extra years to life.

Dangers of Sedentary Lifestyle

Physical inactivity is a major health risk, causing 7-9% of deaths worldwide. Many studies depend on self-reported activity, which may not be accurate. Using tracking devices to monitor movement provides a more accurate understanding of how small daily changes in activity can affect mortality. Similarly, focusing only on achieving high activity levels or perfect health habits can miss the benefits of smaller, more realistic improvements.

Small Activity Changes

In the Norwegian study published in The Lancet, researchers analyzed data from many participants to estimate how small increases in activity and reductions in sitting time could prevent deaths.

They found that adding just five minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise each day could prevent 6% of deaths among the least active individuals, or 10% if most people increased their activity. Reducing sitting time by 30 minutes per day could prevent 3% of deaths for the least active and 7.3% if most people made changes. Even small daily changes, like 10 minutes of extra activity or one hour less sitting, were linked to meaningful improvements in life expectancy.

Lifestyle Shifts and Longevity

The Australian study, published in eClinicalMedicine, examined the effects of sleep, exercise, and diet. Researchers found that individuals who consistently got 7.2–8 hours of sleep, exercised more than 42 minutes daily, and followed a high-quality diet could gain more than nine extra years of life.

Adding five minutes of sleep, nearly two minutes of exercise, and a small improvement in diet quality was linked to an extra year of life. Larger, but still manageable, changes like 24 minutes of more sleep, about four extra minutes of exercise, and a bigger improvement in diet were associated with four extra years of healthy living.

The Takeaway

Both studies show that small, realistic lifestyle changes can have a major impact on health and longevity. Simple daily improvements in movement, sitting habits, sleep, and diet could prevent deaths and extend not only lifespan but also the number of years spent in good health.