The findings, the study's authors said, were largely consistent across the categories of age, sex, obesity and cardiovascular risk.

An increase of 17 minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity per day or 2,312 steps per day or reductions of 249 minutes of sedentary time per day between two testing cycles corresponded with a 5% higher peak oxygen uptake, and individuals with high above-average steps or moderate-vigorous physical activity demonstrated above-average peak oxygen uptake values regardless of their sedentary time per day.

Moderate-vigorous physical activity is defined as a rate of 100 to 129 steps per minute; greater than 130 steps per minute is considered vigorous. A cadence of 60 to 99 steps per minute is considered low-level exertion.