HERE HE goes again, I can hear you all saying already. “Get active”, “Do more exercise”, “Eat better”, “Don’t drink too much or smoke”, “Bet he even bores himself”.

Well I’ll be honest, I do sometimes. But when you feel passionately about something then you tend to find it occupies your thoughts a lot and whatever is on your mind does tend to come out of your mouth a lot(or onto your laptop in this case).

So why is it on my mind this week in particular?

In my job I read a lot of reports, research articles and general nonsense off the internet. Earlier this week one of the fitness industry magazines I read had an article on its front cover reporting some research into lack of physical activity and its link to early death.

It went on to say that “twice as many deaths may be attributed to lack of physical activity than obesity”.

So although all the health advice is based on us losing weight, or being a “healthy” weight, the research is suggesting that it’s actually lack of activity that is a bigger concern.

The research wasn’t insignificant either, it included over 334,000 men and women across Europe as part of a study into cancer and nutrition carried out by the University of Cambridge.

They found the greatest reduction in risk of premature death was when they compared inactive and moderately inactive groups.

So how much activity made a difference? A significant amount of time you would think? An hour or more a day?

No.

As little as a 20 minute brisk walk each day. Just 20 minutes.

So less than an episode of Eastenders or Coronation Street.

One of the biggest reasons that people give me for not getting active – lack of time – has just been dispelled as a myth because you don’t need that much time to make a difference.

If you’re currently inactive, doing physical activity just 20 minutes a day can start to make a difference. If we’re not prepared to make that daily effort and sacrifice then it really is a sad state of affairs.

Other activity, as well as walking, could be swimming, cycling or anything at all that means we have to work harder than normal.

Because that is key in this, it’s a brisk walk that the research has shown makes a difference. The kind of walk that makes you a little out of breath and raises your heart rate. It may even cause you to sweat a little as well.

A small sacrifice to pay to improve your health and live that bit longer.