Recently, I feel like I’ve talked about quite a few different ways to help you maximise your health span – the period of time that you spend in good health.

And I realise it can feel like a LOT.

But it doesn’t have to.

It doesn’t have to take hours every day.

Doesn’t need any equipment.

And it doesn’t even need to take any motivation.

Of course, I’m not for a moment suggesting that you don’t need to do any other exercise.

What I’m talking about is the stuff you do when you’re just going about your daily life.

How to take advantage of NEAT for cardiovascular health

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis is the calories that your body burns through your daily movement (anything that’s not sleeping, eating, or structured exercise).

It includes things like: putting out the recycling; standing while you cook; or carrying a bag of shopping from the car. Even things like fidgeting are included (e.g. constantly tapping or twitching a foot).

For most people, NEAT contributes more to daily energy expenditure than exercise. And this daily expenditure varies between individuals more dramatically than almost any other component of metabolism.

A recent study followed 25,000 otherwise sedentary adults over 7 years and found that those who accumulated just three short bursts of vigorous daily activity, each lasting about a minute, had a 38 to 40 percent lower risk of dying from any cause during follow-up compared to those who did nothing.

For cardiovascular death specifically, the reduction was 48 to 49 percent.

The minimum effective dose was about three and a half minutes per day, and 92 percent of the activity bouts lasted less than a minute.

So that being the case how can we make the most of those 3.5 minutes?

What to do, where to do it.

Let’s start in the kitchen with things you can do in the time it takes the kettle to boil.

I don’t know how many times you switch the kettle on every day, but if you’re like me, it might be quite a few!

– Calf raises: these improve calf strength, foot and ankle mobility and improve heart, metabolic and functional strength.

– Squats: to improve your ability to get up and down stairs and off the floor, reduce risks of knee injuries and improve glucose processing.

– Chair sit to stand: Builds explosive power to help you get up and down from the floor, squishy sofas, chairs generally.

– Counter chest-press ups: improves shoulder and chest strength without having to come down to the floor. Ability to do press-ups is correlated with higher levels of cardiovascular health.

Use the stairs

You can do these any time you have to go up/down stairs

– Calf raises and lowers: If you’re newer to these, please hold onto the bannister/ wall. Stand with one foot firmly on the step and the heel of the other foot hanging over the edge of the step and slowly lift and lower the heel. Also adds a nice balance build.

– Sit to stand from the bottom stairs: if getting down to the floor is not available to your right now, this is a fantastic place to start. Start on the highest step where you can put your feet flat on the floor at the bottom, and stand up as quickly as you can (preferably without using your hands). If that’s easy, go down a step. Work towards getting off the bottom step.

– Walking up and down the stairs: How many up and down can you do safely in one minute? Improves cardiovascular health, hip strength and mobility, maintains ability to get up and down the stairs and improves social confidence.

– Jump off the bottom step on to the floor: A fab way to add a little impact into your life to improve your bone health, plus it improves your balance, coordination and confidence.

It’s time to head to the bathroom

Cleaning your teeth is something you do at least twice a day so it’s a perfect time to multi-task.

– Single leg balance: an oldie but a goodie! Stand on one leg while you clean the bottom teeth and the other while you do the top. Try not to touch the basin with your hand!

Those too easy now? Try these builds..

– Single leg squats: balance + squat action. Boom!

– Single leg calf raises: Balance + calf raises. Another boom!

– Single leg balance + opposite hand holding the toothbrush: A nice coordination challenge as I know how much you all like doing opposite arm and leg! Plus using your non-dominant hand to do things is great for brain health.

How to build these in without making it a big thing.

Firstly, you don’t need to do all the things every day. Maybe pick one of them from each of the three sections this week; and then different exercises next week etc.