Accumulating short bouts of high-intensity exercise may be more important for cardiovascular health than exercising at a moderate intensity.

Teenagers should run around like young children and do short bursts of high-intensity exercise, a study claims.

If adolescents do as little as two minutes of strenuous exercise four times a day, it can be beneficial in improving long-term health.

Researchers at the University of Exeter said the same level of medium-intensity exercise did not reap the same rewards for teenagers.

They found that when exercise was broken up into short bursts over the course of a day – replicating the way young children go about being active – only high-intensity exercise is effective in improving blood sugar levels, fat metabolism and blood pressure in adolescents after the consumption of a fatty meal.

The research adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that accumulating short bouts of high-intensity exercise may be more important for cardiovascular health than exercising at a moderate intensity.

This is important, as cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and the process underlying these diseases starts in youth.

Co-author Alan Barker, from the University of Exeter, said: “Children and adolescents tend to perform brief bouts of exercise.

“This study shows that the intensity of this pattern of exercise is important, with high-intensity providing superior health benefits than moderate-intensity exercise.”

In the study, adolescents had their blood sugar, blood pressure and fat metabolism measured at regular intervals over eight hours, which included the consumption of a fatty meal for breakfast and lunch.

During this period the participants were asked to perform four bouts of high or moderate-intensity exercise.

This allowed the researchers to conclude that the intensity of exercise is important for health in adolescents when the exercise is accumulated during the day.

The study, Accumulating Exercise and Postprandial Health in Adolescents, is published in the journal Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental.