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Walk more--that's all you have to do.

Article Excerpt
For cardiovascular and other health benefits like increased longevity, you need only exercise moderately for 30 minutes at least five days a week. That has been the recommendation for nearly 15 years, and it has decades of high-quality research to back it up. In an attempt to refine things further, team of researchers asked the questions: Can this exercise recommendation be cut back further and still produce health benefits? Will 45 minutes five days of the week provide even more?

The study designed to answer these questions drew participants from the most sedentary segment of the U.S. population--postmenopausal women. Published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, this study continues to produce surprise findings as researchers are still analyzing the mountains of data it has generated.

A co-author of this and many other landmark studies is exercise scientist Steven N. Blair, PED, professor in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina. One of the world's leading researchers on the health benefits of exercise, Dr. Blair is interviewed by Maryann Napoli.

MN: Is it fair to summarize your research as providing proof that people can be fat and fit and that they can achieve cardiovascular fitness with only a moderate degree and amount of activity?

SNB: Scientists try to stay away from using the word "proof", but we have provided pretty compelling evidence that you can be fat and...

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