When you think about your exercise, what thoughts come to mind? Body Pump on Mondays, Step class on Wednesdays, Park Run on Sundays? Or perhaps as you finish work, you often sit there encouraging yourself to go to the gym more than twice a week?
If these sound like you, I strongly suggest you re-modelling your approach to exercise.
I believe we should stop thinking about exercise as a chore done and start thinking about making movement a big part of your day. Every day. Scientific evidence is fully behind this.
Recent research into the role of exercise on our health has been unequivocal that it is not the AMOUNT of exercise that is driving disease, but it is our predominantly sedentary lifestyle that is the cause of inflammatory diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity & diabetes 2 and cancers.
The Mayo Clinic report claims that 1 in 4 US adults spend about 70% of their waking hours sedentary, about 27% spend time in light activities (such as walking) and just 3% are engaged in moderate to rigorous activity regularly. In the UK, figures show that 37% of our population never exercise or play sports.
Movement and exercise have many benefits for our health, but when it comes to protection against disease, physical activity is one of the highest measures.
Exercise improves immune system functioning by increasing the activity of natural ‘killer cells’ - special immune cells that fight viruses and infections. There is a strong body of research that shows that moderate regular exercise (such as brisk walking) is a strong protective mechanism against respiratory infections. Studies in the field of exercise immunology by David C. Nieman from Human Performance Laboratory, Appalachian State University of North Carolina, demonstrate over and over that moderate exercise has an anti-inflammatory influence on our body via multiple pathways.
“The number of days with URTI [upper respiratory tract infections] was 43% lower in subjects engaging in an average of 5 or more days per week of aerobic exercise (20 min bouts or longer) compared with those who were largely sedentary” - he writes in his review paper for the Journal of Sport and Health Science.
Engaging in moderate and vigorous exercise, such as walking and running, decreases the risks of death from all respiratory diseases, including pneumonia. This is especially important for the elderly, as pneumonia is the leading cause of hospitalisation and the second biggest cause of death among this age group.
Some researchers say it is the “dose-response” relationship that exercise exhibits on serious outcomes of respiratory diseases. A study in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise claims that when people engage in longer periods of running and walking, their risks of respiratory disease, pneumonia, and death from pneumonia decrease proportionately with the amount of exercise. This protective benefit of exercise is independent of pre-existing cardiovascular conditions.
And what about COVID-19 and the respiratory infections caused by the virus? Research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last month showed that exercise was the biggest predictor for serious outcomes from the virus, such as hospitalisation, requirement of the ICU and death. The researchers analysed exercise patterns of over 48,000 people, with the average age of 47. Controlling for various demographics, such as age, sex and ethnicity the researchers found that exercise was the higher factor of the risks surpassing even the most serious pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
This is incredible!
Full article here
The current exercise guidelines in the UK, as well as the US, recommend that adults should do 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. Translated into activity-time pattern, this equates to 30 minutes of moderate-pace walking 5 times a week or 1 hour and 15 minutes of running per week.
But many experts in the field of exercise science say it is just not enough!
We evolved to be active. Over millennia human activity ensured we survived predators, found food to stave off hunger, and built shelter to keep warm and safe.
The technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have seen that our work sites, schools, homes and public spaces are continuously re-engineered in such ways that minimise our movement and muscular activity. Some public health experts say that “sitting is a lethal activity” and is not the opposite to exercise. We simply cannot undo the detrimental effects caused by no-activity, such as sitting, by taking 1-hour gym session three times a week. We need to start moving more.
Studies show that breaking sitting with standing and light-intensity activity improves our cardio-metabolic markers (such as glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, triglyceride levels) more than structured exercise does. What it means in reality is that by taking a 5-minute break every hour to walk around your office (or home office), going up and down the stairs, taking a work phone call while standing gives you as positive effects as regular exercise does!
What’s more, movement increases the production of mitochondria (tiny organelles that provide our cells with energy), thus, the more you move the more energy you have.
Ever felt like rebuking your kids for constant fidgeting?
It is not that they want to annoy you, their bodies, yet unspoilt by bad habits, urge them to constantly move, shift and fidget. Don’t stop them, but take their example and move and fidget more!
If these sound like you, I strongly suggest you re-modelling your approach to exercise.
I believe we should stop thinking about exercise as a chore done and start thinking about making movement a big part of your day. Every day. Scientific evidence is fully behind this.
Recent research into the role of exercise on our health has been unequivocal that it is not the AMOUNT of exercise that is driving disease, but it is our predominantly sedentary lifestyle that is the cause of inflammatory diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity & diabetes 2 and cancers.
The Mayo Clinic report claims that 1 in 4 US adults spend about 70% of their waking hours sedentary, about 27% spend time in light activities (such as walking) and just 3% are engaged in moderate to rigorous activity regularly. In the UK, figures show that 37% of our population never exercise or play sports.
Movement and exercise have many benefits for our health, but when it comes to protection against disease, physical activity is one of the highest measures.
Exercise improves immune system functioning by increasing the activity of natural ‘killer cells’ - special immune cells that fight viruses and infections. There is a strong body of research that shows that moderate regular exercise (such as brisk walking) is a strong protective mechanism against respiratory infections. Studies in the field of exercise immunology by David C. Nieman from Human Performance Laboratory, Appalachian State University of North Carolina, demonstrate over and over that moderate exercise has an anti-inflammatory influence on our body via multiple pathways.
“The number of days with URTI [upper respiratory tract infections] was 43% lower in subjects engaging in an average of 5 or more days per week of aerobic exercise (20 min bouts or longer) compared with those who were largely sedentary” - he writes in his review paper for the Journal of Sport and Health Science.
Engaging in moderate and vigorous exercise, such as walking and running, decreases the risks of death from all respiratory diseases, including pneumonia. This is especially important for the elderly, as pneumonia is the leading cause of hospitalisation and the second biggest cause of death among this age group.
Some researchers say it is the “dose-response” relationship that exercise exhibits on serious outcomes of respiratory diseases. A study in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise claims that when people engage in longer periods of running and walking, their risks of respiratory disease, pneumonia, and death from pneumonia decrease proportionately with the amount of exercise. This protective benefit of exercise is independent of pre-existing cardiovascular conditions.
And what about COVID-19 and the respiratory infections caused by the virus? Research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last month showed that exercise was the biggest predictor for serious outcomes from the virus, such as hospitalisation, requirement of the ICU and death. The researchers analysed exercise patterns of over 48,000 people, with the average age of 47. Controlling for various demographics, such as age, sex and ethnicity the researchers found that exercise was the higher factor of the risks surpassing even the most serious pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
This is incredible!
Full article here
The current exercise guidelines in the UK, as well as the US, recommend that adults should do 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. Translated into activity-time pattern, this equates to 30 minutes of moderate-pace walking 5 times a week or 1 hour and 15 minutes of running per week.
But many experts in the field of exercise science say it is just not enough!
We evolved to be active. Over millennia human activity ensured we survived predators, found food to stave off hunger, and built shelter to keep warm and safe.
The technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have seen that our work sites, schools, homes and public spaces are continuously re-engineered in such ways that minimise our movement and muscular activity. Some public health experts say that “sitting is a lethal activity” and is not the opposite to exercise. We simply cannot undo the detrimental effects caused by no-activity, such as sitting, by taking 1-hour gym session three times a week. We need to start moving more.
Studies show that breaking sitting with standing and light-intensity activity improves our cardio-metabolic markers (such as glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, triglyceride levels) more than structured exercise does. What it means in reality is that by taking a 5-minute break every hour to walk around your office (or home office), going up and down the stairs, taking a work phone call while standing gives you as positive effects as regular exercise does!
What’s more, movement increases the production of mitochondria (tiny organelles that provide our cells with energy), thus, the more you move the more energy you have.
Ever felt like rebuking your kids for constant fidgeting?
It is not that they want to annoy you, their bodies, yet unspoilt by bad habits, urge them to constantly move, shift and fidget. Don’t stop them, but take their example and move and fidget more!
