Let’s be honest for a moment: do you really love exercise? Chances are you don’t. It is not hard to see why. Yours truly is not yet sold on exercise’s ROI (return on investment). At my relatively young age, the chest burns, the leg muscles churn like the innards of a posho mill engine, and if you are not careful, your head loses sense of everything, including the meaning of life itself.
But scientists insist that exercise is good for you. In fact, they say it prolongs life and helps keep conditions, such as high blood pressure, at bay. The evidence supporting these claims is abundant in academic literature, making the matter largely beyond debate.
The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) found that heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other non-communicable diseases account for 39 per cent of all deaths in Kenya.
Our response to this science has been to embrace exercise with gusto. An entire fitness industry has emerged as a result. In Nairobi and its satellite towns, gyms are big business. Scores of men and women, largely drawn from the middle class, sweat it out in carpeted fitness centres, often to the soundtrack of pulsating techno music.
For those of us who find such routines daunting, there is encouraging news. A systematic review of studies on physical activity has concluded that short bursts of exercise can deliver impressive health benefits without requiring hours in the gym.
KDHS 2022 data showed that physical inactivity affects roughly 14 per cent of adult men and 17 per cent of adult women in Kenya. Furthermore, only one in five adolescents meets the recommended physical activity levels.
Published in the journal Healthcare, the review examined 26 studies conducted between 2012 and 2025. Participants included healthy adults, older adults and individuals living with obesity, type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Titled Exercise Snacks as a Strategy to Interrupt Sedentary Behaviour: A Systematic Review of Health Outcomes and Feasibility, the study evaluated the effectiveness of “exercise snacks”, brief bouts of physical activity designed to break up prolonged periods of sitting.
The researchers concluded that these short activity breaks improved postprandial glucose levels, insulin and triglyceride responses, reduced blood pressure, preserved endothelial and cerebral blood flow, and enhanced cardiorespiratory fitness. Among older adults, exercise snacks led to improvements in lower-limb strength and mobility. Evidence also pointed to better mood, reduced fatigue and enhanced cognitive performance.
Feasibility trials found high levels of acceptance and adherence across different settings and age groups. And why not? Short activity breaks lasting less than five minutes and spread throughout the day are manageable almost anywhere, at home, in the office or while travelling.
The modern era is characterised by unprecedented levels of sedentary behaviour, driven largely by technological advances, urbanisation and lifestyle changes that encourage prolonged sitting at work, during travel and even during leisure time.
Exercise snacking, therefore, offers a practical, time-efficient and evidence-based way of reducing the health risks associated with inactivity.
Researchers recommend short bursts of movement lasting between one and five minutes every 30 to 60 minutes during prolonged sitting. Examples include climbing stairs, performing bodyweight squats, taking a brisk walk around the office or using resistance bands.