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Exercise and mortality risk reduction

This is an excerpt from Prescribing Movement as Medicine by Kevin Carr.

FROM NOTHING TO SOMETHING

While starting an exercise program can feel intimidating and overwhelming, we as fitness professionals should take comfort in knowing that the biggest gains come right at the beginning. Going from nothing to something is where the largest health dividends are paid.

Just 10 to 15 minutes of daily activity lowers risk of early death significantly, and walking as few as 4,000 steps per day reduces all-cause mortality by nearly a third (Saint-Maurice et al., 2020). Even 10 to 59 minutes of weekly physical activity—far below the 150-minute guideline—reduces premature mortality by nearly 20 percent (Arem et al., 2015). Resistance training shows the same pattern: As little as one to two sessions per week are linked to reduced cardiovascular and cancer mortality (Momma et al., 2022).

The analysis by Arem and colleagues (2015) presented in figure 2.3 makes the dose–response relationship clear. Doing less than the guideline (under 150 minutes per week, equivalent to approximately 0.1–7.5 metabolic equivalent task hours [MET-hours], a unit that combines exercise intensity and duration) still lowered mortality by about 20 percent compared to doing nothing. Meeting the guideline (150–300 minutes per week, 7.5–15 MET-hours) cut risk by 31 percent, and doubling it (300–450 minutes, 15–22.5 MET-hours) lowered risk by 37 percent. Beyond that, the curve began to flatten; those exercising three to ten times the guideline still saw about a 39 percent reduction, with little additional benefit.

For clients, this knowledge is liberating: Improving one’s health does not require perfection. Small, manageable steps matter. The role of the coach is to lower the barrier to entry, celebrate early wins, and scale gradually to ensure those first steps do not feel overwhelming.

More Excerpts From Prescribing Movement as Medicine

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