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From the Journals

Five Minutes of Exercise Associated with Lower Blood Pressure

Small amounts of daily exercise-like activity can aid blood pressure management, and just 5 minutes of additional exercise can lower systolic blood pressure by 0.68 mm Hg, regardless of which daily activity it replaces.

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A cross-sectional study of nearly 15,000 participants found adding just 5 minutes of exercise-like activity per day—such as running, cycling, or climbing stairs—was associated with measurable reductions in blood pressure. The research, published in Circulation, analyzed data from six cohort studies across five countries.

The study found that reallocating 5 minutes from any other daily activity to exercise-like activities was associated with a 0.68 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure and a 0.54 mm Hg reduction in diastolic blood pressure.

For clinically meaningful improvements, researchers identified specific time requirements:

For a 2 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure, exercise-like activity needed to replace:

  • 20 minutes of fast walking
  • 21 minutes of sedentary time
  • 22 minutes of standing
  • 26 minutes of slow walking
  • 27 minutes of sleeping

For a 1 mm Hg reduction in diastolic blood pressure, exercise-like activity needed to replace:

  • 10 minutes of fast walking
  • 11 minutes of sedentary time
  • 13 minutes of sleeping
  • 14 minutes of slow walking
  • 15 minutes of standing

The research, conducted by the Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep (ProPASS) consortium, examined how people spent their average day:

  • 10.7 hours in sedentary behavior
  • 7.1 hours sleeping
  • 3.2 hours standing
  • 1.6 hours slow walking
  • 1.1 hours fast walking
  • 16 minutes in exercise-like activities

The study population included 14,761 participants with an average age of 54.2 years, of whom 53% were female. Participants wore thigh-mounted accelerometers to track their daily movements. The researchers noted that while the study included participants from five countries, it lacked ethnic and racial diversity.

Study limitations included its cross-sectional nature, which cannot establish cause-and-effect relationships, and its inability to capture certain activities like swimming. Additionally, 24% of participants were taking blood pressure medications, which researchers accounted for in their analysis.

One author reported a financial conflict of interest as "a paid consultant and holds equity in Complement Theory Inc, a U.S.-based startup company for which products and services relate to the contents of this article." All other authors reported no conflicts of interest.