Gyms are an expense and often tough to get to.

But according to Medical News Today, “physical activity can be broken up into 10-minute bouts and be as effective as one longer session.” These findings have also been found by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association.

Three brisk ten-minute walks instead of one 30-minute workout provide the same health & weight loss benefits. Physicians add that any exercise is good, even the most ordinary but cumulative. Pace while brushing your teeth or hair, or talking on your phone or waiting for the microwave. Take the stairs instead of the elevator (if your health is o.k. for it; check with your physician). If it’s freezing outside & your living space is small, place an empty wastepaper basket upside down and power walk around it. Work in 10 minutes here, ten minutes there, so that it adds up to 30 minutes a day. The goal is simply to move a lot. Have you ever noticed that people who pace tend to be thinner?

With plaque buildup always at it regardless of the season, daily exercise is especially important for the health of your arteries. Here too is a surprise: younger plaque is more dangerous, and can start building up at ages as young as the mid-twenties. In that Oxford Journal scroll down to the 3rd page, F21 on the upper right. Under “How early should intervention begin?,” it’s the second paragraph.… or, here it is:

“It is now well established that *atherosclerosis has a long pre-clinical window. Autopsy studies of Korean War casualties, for example, revealed that over three-quarters of apparently fit American soldiers, at an average age of 22 years, already had evidence of atherosclerosis*[37]. This alarming finding has been confirmed in numerous subsequent autopsy reports and more recently in studies using intra-vascular ultrasound. Tuzcu et al.*[38], examining coronary arteries of donor hearts in a transplantation programme, showed that atherosclerosis was present in almost one-fifth of teenagers and in 85% of those aged 50 years or older."

For that *[37] note’s source, scroll all the way to the end of the article (p. F23), & there it is, #37. A Landmark article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

* “Athero” is Greek for porridge. So if you’re ever in Greece & want porridge, say “Athero. Hold the porridge!”

See too    exercise & longevity