5 Minutes of Daily Exercise Could Add Years to Your Life: New Research

The S&P kissed 7,000 and pulled back – Fed holds steady while tech giants tee up earnings drama

The quick scan: Wednesday delivered a historic moment followed by an anticlimax, as the S&P 500 briefly touched 7,000 for the first time ever before retreating. The Fed held rates steady as expected, chip stocks rallied on AI optimism, and Wall Street braced for mega-tech earnings after the bell.

S&P 500: -0.01% to 6,978.03 – touched an intraday high of 7,002.28 (crossing 7,000 for the first time in history) before pulling back to end essentially flat after the Fed decision
Dow Jones: +0.02% to 49,015.60 – barely budged, adding just 12 points in a day dominated by waiting – for the Fed decision, for tech earnings, for clarity on what comes next
NASDAQ: +0.17% to 23,857.45 – outperformed thanks to chip stocks riding ASML's surprise record orders, though mega-caps like Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla stayed muted ahead of their after-hours earnings reports

What's driving it: The Fed held rates at 3.5-3.75% in a 10-2 vote (Governors Waller and Miran dissented, wanting a cut), maintaining the path for two potential cuts by year-end. ASML's blowout chip equipment orders fueled AI optimism, lifting Texas Instruments (+8%), Intel (+12%), and Micron. Meanwhile, Starbucks jumped 6% and AT&T rose 5% on strong results, while Elevance Health fell 5% on weak 2026 guidance. The historic 7,000 mark became a "sell the news" moment as traders awaited Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla earnings.

Bottom line: Hitting 7,000 matters less than holding it – and Wednesday's retreat suggests Wall Street needs more proof that the AI boom can deliver on sky-high valuations, making tonight's tech earnings the real test of whether this rally has room to run.

The 5-Minute Secret to Living Longer

The scoop: Here's the thing about most fitness advice: it asks for too much, too soon, from people who are already overwhelmed. Join a gym. Commit to 45-minute workouts. Track your macros. Buy the gear. Download the app.

And then we wonder why so many of us give up before we even start.

But new research from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences just handed us something different – something so beautifully simple it almost feels too easy to matter. Except it absolutely does.

Five minutes. That's it. Five extra minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per day, according to an analysis of wearable data from over 130,000 people across multiple countries, is linked to meaningful improvements in lifespan.

Not "might help a tiny bit if you squint at the data." Actually meaningful – the kind that could prevent up to 6% of deaths among high-risk groups and 10% among the broader population.

And if adding 5 minutes feels like too much? Simply sitting less – reducing your sedentary time by 30 minutes a day – shows similar benefits.

I know what you're thinking. Five minutes sounds suspiciously like those "one weird trick" headlines that promise everything and deliver nothing. But this isn't snake oil – it's rigorous research published in The Lancet, one of the world's most respected medical journals.

The researchers used statistical models to estimate each participant's risk of death and compared it with their peers, then modeled how changes in activity levels might shift those risks. And here's the part that matters most for us L-Plate retirees: the biggest benefits showed up among people who were typically less active and spent more of their day sitting.

In other words, if you're currently doing the least, you stand to gain the most from making relatively small changes.

Think about that for a moment. We're not talking about training for a marathon or joining a CrossFit class or even committing to daily hour-long walks (though those are great if that's your thing). We're talking about something so modest, so achievable, that it almost seems unfair to call it exercise.

A brisk 5-minute walk around the block. Five minutes of gentle movement between sitting sessions. Standing and moving while you take a phone call instead of sitting through it.

Dr. Daniel Bailey, a sedentary behavior scientist at Brunel University in London who wasn't involved in the study, puts it plainly: "A clear message we want to get across is that every movement counts and getting inactive people to do some activity is where we see the biggest gains in health."

Notice he said "some activity" – not "intense workouts" or "serious training programs." Just movement. Any movement.

Now, before we get carried away thinking we've found the lazy person's path to immortality (that’s not me of course…), let's be clear: more exercise is still better. The World Health Organization recommends 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, and that guidance hasn't changed.

But here's what this research really gives us: permission to start small. A realistic entry point for people who've been paralyzed by the gap between where they are and where they think they should be.

You know that voice in your head that says "If I can't commit to a real exercise program, there's no point in doing anything at all"? This research politely tells that voice to sit down and be quiet.

Because the truth is, for many of us in the retirement years, the perfect workout routine we keep putting off isn't what's going to save us. What might actually save us is the imperfect 5 minutes we actually do.

Think of it as compound interest for your body. Those 5 minutes don't seem like much on Tuesday afternoon. But 5 minutes a day, every day, adds up to 35 minutes a week. That's 30 hours a year. That's a genuine shift in your activity baseline – the kind of shift this research suggests could add years to your life.

And if you're thinking "Well, 5 minutes is better than nothing, but I should really be doing more," you're missing the point. The goal isn't to use 5 minutes as a stepping stone to some theoretical future where you exercise properly. The goal is to make 5 minutes your new baseline – something so doable, so built into your day, that it's harder to skip than to do.

Maybe it's parking a bit farther from the grocery store entrance. Maybe it's taking the stairs instead of the elevator when you're only going up one floor. Maybe it's standing up and marching in place during TV commercials.

The researchers noted this was an observational study, so it doesn't prove direct cause-and-effect. They also pointed out they only looked at all-cause mortality, not other health outcomes, and that more research is needed in different populations with varying disease burdens.

But the association is strong enough, and the datasets large enough, that the message feels worth heeding: small changes, consistently applied, can make a real difference.

Which brings us back to where we started – with all that overwhelming fitness advice that asks for everything while we're still trying to figure out how to start with something.

Five minutes isn't everything. But it's something. And for many of us, something is exactly what we need.

Actionable Takeaways for L-Plate Retirees:

• Start with just 5 minutes: Pick one 5-minute activity you can realistically do every day – a walk around the block, gentle stretches, marching in place – and make it non-negotiable.

• Break up sitting time: Set a timer to stand and move for 5 minutes every hour, or reduce your total sitting time by 30 minutes daily through small changes like standing phone calls or walking while thinking.

• Target your weakest area: If you're currently among the least active, these small changes will benefit you most – don't let comparison to more active friends discourage you from starting small.

• Focus on consistency over intensity: A modest 5-minute walk you actually do every day beats an ambitious 45-minute workout you keep postponing – build the habit first, expand it later if you want.

• Stack movement onto existing habits: Add your 5 minutes to something you already do daily – walk while your coffee brews, do gentle movements while watching the morning news, take a short stroll after lunch.

• Remember that more is still better: While 5 minutes makes a difference, gradually working toward the WHO recommendation of 150 minutes weekly remains the gold standard – but starting small beats not starting at all.

Your Turn:
What 5-minute activity could you realistically add to your daily routine without needing special equipment or major schedule changes?
When during your typical day do you spend 30 minutes sitting that could potentially be replaced with light movement or standing?
If you're already active, can you think of someone in your life who might benefit from hearing that 5 minutes actually matters?

👉 Hit reply and share your story – your insights could inspire fellow readers in future issues.

If this newsletter gave you permission to start small – and reminded you that something is always better than nothing – consider supporting L-Plate Retiree on Ko-fi. Your support helps me keep sharing research-backed, no-nonsense fitness guidance that meets you exactly where you are.