There’s a plot, familiar to adventure film fans, in which the hero must keep moving or die.

Although the average person’s situation isn’t that dramatic, a lack of movement could be detrimental.

“Prolonged sitting slows down the metabolism regardless of fitness levels,” writes Arto Pesola, exercise physiologist, in an email interview.

That phrase “regardless of fitness levels” is important.

You can’t lull yourself into thinking you’re doing enough if you only follow the current guidelines to get at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, health experts say.

You’re still coming up short.

That 150 minutes a week is only about 2 percent of the time you're awake during the week, and it isn't enough to go to the gym three times a week, says Dr. Srinivasan Beddhu, professor of medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City.

Instead, more consistent and frequent effort is needed.

But unlike those movies in which characters are running through the streets, you can take a moderate approach.

If you simply switch out two minutes of sitting time every waking hour for light intensity exercise, such as walking, you may strengthen your heart, muscles and bones and significantly reduce your risk of early death, according to a recent study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Frequent exercise throughout the day is important to counter the negative effects of prolonged sitting, according to Pesola.

“Prolonged sitting slows down the metabolism, regardless of fitness levels,” writes Pesola, Ph.D. candidate, department of biology of physical activity, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.

“For example, the activity of 'fat-burning enzymes' drops and the insulin sensitivity decreases during periods when there’s no activity in muscles and the whole body energy expenditure is low,” he writes.

Simply standing up from a chair increases energy expenditure by 15 to 20 percent, and thigh muscle activity by 200 percent, according to Pesola, whose study showing that muscle inactivity is adversely associated with (health) biomarkers was published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

If the act of getting up is so beneficial, how about spending more time standing?

It’s not enough, according to Dr. Beddhu.

Although standing may have health advantages when compared with sitting, that trade-off doesn’t provide a mortality benefit, according to Dr. Beddhu, who looked at activity and health for the study in the nephrology journal.

“On the other hand, if you trade sitting time for casual walking time there’s a mortality benefit,” Dr. Beddhu says.

His study looked at physical activity and mortality from more than 3,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Increased light intensity activity was associated with a 33 percent lower risk of dying, according to the nephrology journal study.

Dr. Beddhu recommends taking a two-minute or longer exercise break every hour you’re awake.

You can do this by walking during television commercials or telephone conversations or making frequent visits to other parts of your office building.

Those minutes add up.

Assuming you’re awake 16 hours a day, that’s 32 more minutes of physical activity a day.

“It’s two minutes on top of what you’re already doing. If you can do five minutes per hour, even better,” says Dr. Beddhu, who also recommends adding in moderate exercise for cardiovascular health. 

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