Sources & claims
Every number on this site comes from published research. Each one is listed here with its source, the size of the study and what kind of study it was — because a percentage without that is not information.
How we write about health
- We describe what studies found, not what they promise you. Observational studies show associations, and we say “linked with”, not “causes”.
- Small studies are named as small. A lab trial of eleven people is useful, and it is still eleven people.
- We cite the research, not the news article that covered it.
- Calyvento is not a medical device and makes no treatment claim.
The claims on this site
Sitting is a risk of its own
- For people sitting 14 hours a day rather than 8, extra daily steps offset the added risk for several conditions — but no step count fully offset it for coronary artery disease or heart failure.Zheng, Huang, Annis, Master, Full & Brittain · Nature Communications 17:4936 (2026) · 15,327 people, All of Us
- About 60–75 minutes of moderate activity a day appeared to cancel out the link between sitting more than eight hours a day and early death — roughly three times the recommended minimum.Ekelund et al. · The Lancet 388:1302–10 (2016) · 1,005,791 people in 16 studies
- In 2022, 31% of adults worldwide — about 1.8 billion people — did not reach the recommended amount of physical activity.Strain et al. · The Lancet Global Health 12:e1232–43 (2024); WHO, June 2024 · 507 surveys, 5.7 million people
Why small and often
- Walking for 1 min 40 s every half hour lowered blood sugar and insulin after meals more than one continuous 30-minute walk. The single walk did better on triglycerides.Peddie et al. · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 98:358–66 (2013) · 70 adults
- A 30-minute morning walk and five-minute walks every hour both raised energy; only the hourly walks improved mood and reduced fatigue and food cravings by the end of the day. Cognitive tests did not change.Bergouignan et al. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 13:113 (2016) · 30 adults
- Across 37 trials, breaking up sitting moderately lowered blood sugar, insulin and triglycerides after meals. Against a single bout of exercise using the same energy, breaks had a small edge for blood sugar and no difference for the rest.Loh et al. · Sports Medicine 50:295–330 (2020)
What a short break changes
- One minute of light walking every hour lowered systolic blood pressure by about five points (−5.2 mmHg) compared with sitting all day.Duran, Friel, Serafini, Ensari, Cheung & Diaz · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 55:847–55 (2023) · 11 adults, 8-hour lab days
- In the same trial, five minutes of walking every half hour cut the blood-sugar spike after meals by 58% — the only schedule that changed blood sugar significantly. Fatigue and mood improved with every schedule.Columbia University Irving Medical Center, January 2023 · 11 adults
- The walking in these trials was about 3.2 km/h — a stroll, not a brisk walk.Duran et al. 2023; Dunstan et al., Diabetes Care 35:976–83 (2012)
- Three hours of sitting still reduced how well the main leg artery could widen (flow-mediated dilation fell from 4.7% to about 2.2%); a five-minute walk every hour prevented the drop.Thosar et al. · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 47:843–9 (2015) · 12 men
- Four hours of unbroken sitting reduced blood flow to the brain. Two minutes of walking every half hour prevented it; eight minutes every two hours did not.Carter et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology 125:790–8 (2018) · 15 desk workers
Desk aches and exercise
- Two minutes a day of elastic-band exercise meaningfully reduced neck and shoulder pain within ten weeks in workers who had it often; twelve minutes a day did slightly better.Andersen et al. · Pain 152:440–6 (2011) · 198 workers
- Neck and shoulder stretches twice a day, five days a week, reduced pain and improved neck function within four weeks in office workers with chronic neck pain.Tunwattanapong et al. · Clinical Rehabilitation 30:64–72 (2016) · 96 office workers
- In a review of 27 trials, neck and shoulder strengthening and general fitness training at work reduced neck pain in office workers who had it (moderate-quality evidence).Chen et al. · Physical Therapy 98:40–62 (2018)
- Neck pain in office workers was linked with little variety in the working day, a keyboard kept close to the body and feeling tense.Jun et al. · International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 90:373–410 (2017) · 12 studies
- Micro-breaks during keyboard work reduced discomfort in the neck, back, shoulders and wrists — most clearly at 20-minute intervals — with no sign of lower productivity.McLean et al. · Applied Ergonomics 32:225–37 (2001)
- Low back pain is the leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide: 619 million people had it in 2020. This is how common it is — not a claim about what causes it.GBD 2021 Low Back Pain Collaborators · The Lancet Rheumatology 5:e316–29 (2023)
Eyes
- Blink rate averaged 22 a minute at rest, 10 while reading a book and 7 while looking at a screen.Tsubota & Nakamori · New England Journal of Medicine 328:584 (1993) · 104 office workers
- Digital eye strain may affect 50% or more of computer users.Sheppard & Wolffsohn · BMJ Open Ophthalmology 3:e000146 (2018)
- Two weeks of 20-20-20 reminders reduced eye-strain and dry-eye symptoms; a week after the reminders stopped, the improvement was gone. Measurements of the eye surface did not change.Talens-Estarelles et al. · Contact Lens & Anterior Eye 46:101744 (2023) · 29 people
- 20-20-20: every 20 minutes, look at something about six metres away for 20 seconds.American Academy of Ophthalmology / American Optometric Association
Energy, focus and work
- Breaks of ten minutes or less raised energy and reduced fatigue. Their effect on overall performance was not significant; it showed on less demanding tasks and grew with longer breaks.Albulescu et al. · PLOS ONE 17:e0272460 (2022) · 22 samples, 2,335 people
- Adding four five-minute breaks to a data-entry day reduced discomfort and eye strain; people typed faster, and output held up despite twenty minutes less work time.Galinsky et al., NIOSH · American Journal of Industrial Medicine 50:519–27 (2007) · 51 workers
- Whether breaking up sitting sharpens thinking is unsettled: of seven studies, three found a benefit.Chueh, Chen & Hung · BMJ Open 12:e050458 (2022) · 168 people
Short, vigorous bursts — for context
- Among 25,241 people who don’t exercise, three 1–2 minute bursts of vigorous everyday activity a day — stairs, a run for the bus — were associated with a 38–40% lower risk of death from any cause and 48–49% from heart disease. This is breathless, vigorous movement, not what Calyvento’s gentle movements are, and it shows an association, not cause and effect.Stamatakis et al. · Nature Medicine 28:2521–9 (2022) · UK Biobank
What we don’t know
- Most lab studies of breaking up sitting are small — often a dozen people over a single day. They show what happens in the body, not what happens over years.
- Whether breaks sharpen thinking itself is unsettled. The evidence on energy and fatigue is clearer, so that is what we talk about.
- Studies of vigorous bursts (VILPA) are not about Calyvento’s movements, and they show associations, not cause and effect.
- We don’t use two popular claims: that the most productive people work 52 minutes and rest 17 (company data, since revised by the company itself), and that the brain runs in 90-minute waves through the day (a weakly supported hypothesis).
The physiotherapist’s contribution is separate
The research above explains why short movement breaks are worth taking. It is not the source of the exercises in the app. Those — the movements themselves, their doses, their weekly frequency and their contraindications — were prepared and approved by a licensed physiotherapist as a clinical protocol. The two are different kinds of confidence and we keep them apart.