Climbing stairs, mopping floors, gardening, playing energetically with kids – any form of movement that is a normal part of daily living is known as incidental activity. And the latest science is showing that it has very real benefits for our health, lowering the risk of getting some cancers and experiencing major cardiac events.
This relatively new area of study has been made possible by the advent of wearable technology, says Emmanuel Stamatakis from the University of Sydney, who is leading the research.
“Until now, we’ve relied on questionnaires,” he says. “We couldn’t measure incidental activity simply because people
