Walk This Way...Or That

A huge study dismantles our defeatist and elitist notions about exercise

- Jessica Firger

EXERCISE AND ITS BENEFITS are not just for the wealthy anymore. In the U.S. and other Westernized nations, exercise is often seen as a luxury that requires the time and money that only the rich can afford.

New research demonstrates that you don’t need to enjoy a life of leisure to squeeze in enough exercise. You also don’t need to go to the gym to “feel the burn.” Exercise and its benefits are for everyone.

An international team of researchers designed the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study to find out whether staying active for at least 30 minutes a day—the amount recommended by leading health authorities—significantly reduced cardiovascular disease. The study enrolled nearly 170,000 people from 17 middle and low-income countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern and Northern Europe and the Middle East. The researchers tracked participants—who were from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as rural and urban areas—for six to nine years to see if 30 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week, reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease, even when those minutes were racked up simply by being active rather than exercising in the way many of us define it.