10 minutes daily exercise carries more weight

A study that showed an odd number of minutes (72) per week for exercise boosts cardiovascular fitness in sedentary, postmenopausal, overweight women captured the eye of Grumpy Editor.

Why 72 minutes?  Or, would 75 or 65 make a big difference? What about a rounded-off 70?  Turns out the precise figure was 72.2 mean minutes in a group of 155 obese women out of 464 in a Dallas, Texas area trial.  The 155 spotlighted women, in one of four groups, worked out via exercise bikes and treadmills.

Results of the study, authored by Dr. Timothy Church, appeared in the May 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.  The study was reported in a Newsday story that was picked up by other newspapers around the country over the past few days.

Rather than going the one hour, 12 minutes a week route, translating that to “about 10 minutes workout a day” would have grabbed solid attention --- and inspire more readers to exercise daily for fitness.