That moderate activities such as walking can provide health benefits is encouraging news for the estimated 60 percent of Americans who do not exercise regularly. It doesn't have to mean going to the gym and exercising furiously. It doesn't matter how you get your exercise, just that you get it. Hu emphasized that these findings should not serve as excuses to avoid vigorous forms of exercise such as aerobics or jogging. Besides achieving the diabetes-risk reduction quicker, there are additional health benefits found from forms of exercise that leave a person breathless and with a racing pulse.
Vigorous activity seems to increase life span and decrease risk of cardiovascular heart disease.
I-Min Lee, assistant professor of epidemiology, has done a large amount of research into the health effects of various types and exertion levels of physical activity using data from the College Alumni Health Study. If you do more, you get a larger benefit. On the other hand, they recognize that many currently sedentary people will be overwhelmed and discouraged at the prospect of undertaking an ambitious exercise regimenso discouraged, in fact, that they may opt to do nothing at all. Most, therefore, are happy to report the benefits of moderate activity and hope that it will lead to more. And we hope that once they get there, they'll move on to the next level of activity.