Adding in just five minutes of vigorous exercise to a daily routine can help lower blood pressure, a large study has concluded.

Analysis of data from more than 14,700 people across five countries found that short periods of exercise that increases heart rate, such as cycling and climbing stairs, had a measurable benefit.

Using fitness tracker data, the UK and Australian researchers also calculated that as little as 20 additional minutes of exercise per day could lead to clinically meaningful cardiovascular risk reduction at the population level.

Writing in the journal Circulation they said walking was not enough and it had to be more vigorous exercise, including short bursts of running, to have an impact.

To look at the relationship between movement and blood pressure, they split the data into categories of sedentary behaviour, such as sitting, as well as slow walking, fast walking, standing and more vigorous exercise.

An average 24-hour day was made up of around seven hours of sleep, 10 hours of sedentary behaviour, three hours of standing, one hour of slow walking, one hour of fast walking, and just 16 minutes of exercise activities such as running and cycling.

Looking at the impact of replacing one type of activity with another, they found switching any less active behaviour with more vigorous exercise could lower systolic blood pressure by 0.68 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 0.54 mmHg.

To put this in context, at a population level, a 2 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure and a 1 mmHg reduction in diastolic blood pressure is equivalent to around a 10% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk, they said.

They estimated this could be achieved with around 20 minutes of exercise a day.

Study lead Dr Jo Blodgett, a senior research fellow at University College London, said for most people, exercise is key to reducing blood pressure, rather than less strenuous forms of movement such as walking.

‘The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure.

‘What’s unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from climbing the stairs to a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.’

But among those who do not do a lot of exercise, walking did still have some positive benefits for blood pressure, she added.

‘But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect,’ she said.

Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, joint senior author and professor of physical activity, lifestyle, and population health at the University of Sydney, said despite high blood pressure being one of the biggest health issues globally, there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication.

‘The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise or vigorous incidental activities per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasises how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management.’

A version of this article was first published by our sister title Pulse