What can you do in fifteen minutes a day? A new study indicates that if you spend it exercising, you might just be able to add three years to your life!

A recent study conducted in Taiwan by the National Health Research Institutes revealed that dedicating 15 minutes a day to a moderate form of exercise – such as brisk walking on a treadmill, aerobics, riding a stationary bike, swimming laps in a pool – can boost your life expectancy by three years and reduce your chance of death (of any cause) by 14%.

Now, we’re not sharing this news as an incentive to slack off in your gym workouts or stop coming to the gym. In fact, we encourage you to do quite the opposite. While our Future Fitness team and personal trainers don’t disagree that even a little bit of exercise is a benefit to anyone, imagine the payoff that 30 minutes or even 1 hour might bring! Our fitness challenge to you is, rather than simply exercising 15 minutes a day, why not add another 15 minutes to your current fitness regime.

According to the study, each additional 15 minutes of daily exercise (up to 100 minutes a day) reduced the risk of death by an additional 4%. People who got 30 minutes of activity a day added about four extra years to their life expectancy, compared with their couch potato counterparts.

In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) health fitness guidelines recommend at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week. That adds up to 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, plus additional strength training.  However, it is estimated that only a third of Americans currently live up to those standards. Are you one of them?

If you’re a member of Future Fitness Centers, we’re willing to bet you are! You understand the health benefits that come with working out on a regular basis. But if you know someone who has gotten maybe a little too comfortable living a sedentary lifestyle, we encourage you to bring them with you when you come to the health club when come for your next workout. We’ll show them around, give them a tour of the fitness center and share with them the benefits that come with being in shape.

Or just tell them about our special offer of $1 down and $10 per month. Even if they were to workout no more than 15 minutes a day (96 minutes per week), they’d be spending less than 3 cents per minute to access all of the cardio equipment, group fitness classes and support they need to begin working to achieve better health.