MOTIVATION TO EXERCISE When You’re Not Exercising At All
In this video I share my key takeaways from Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez – Chair of the division of Preventative Cardiology & Research Director at DAHLC, Dr. Sanj Kakar – Mayo Clinic Orthopedic Surgeon and Tracy McCray’ show on the benefits of light activity.
You can watch the show here: https://youtu.be/CTk8UXZffA8
The talk surrounded two newer studies regarding the benefits of light activity. The studies were from researchers from Harvard University, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. They both showed that light activity is more beneficial than we once thought. In fact, if you’re pretty sedentary right now, simply replacing 30 minutes of sedentariness a day with everyday activities reduces the risk of fatal cardiovascular disease by 24%. Moderate to higher intensity had even greater benefits. Light activity included things like vacuuming, or walking the dog. Lighter activity like this for people were are sedentary was found to help reduce mortality.
You can read more of that study here: https://news.ki.se/everyday-exercise-has-surprisingly-positive-health-benefits
Many studies with regards to exercise are done using self reported data. Many people over-estimate the amount of physical activity and exercise they perform. So the validity of research relies on accuracy of those self reported survey and how reliable is the understanding of the benefits of exercise.
These studies were different because they measured the activity with devices more sophisticated than our regular activity trackers. These devices were able to track all movement and could differentiate the difference between, light, moderate and intense activity, as well as though not moving at all.
These studies showed that when people had even light activity, they experienced a lot of positive health benefits. The studies also confirmed that moderate to vigorous activity was perhaps even better than light activity.
One of the most important findings of these studies is that it didn’t take a lot of exercise to experience the benefits. When people go from completely sedentary to a little movement throughout the day is when the biggest benefits occur.
The general guidance for exercise is 150 minutes a week. Dr. Lopez-Jimenez feels this guidance can be the wrong approach. While 150 minutes a week is great, recommending at least 150 minutes to all is setting many people up to fail. This is because it’s difficult to have a person who is only do a few minutes to nothing a week, to all fo a sudden exercising 150 minutes a week.
The main message from these studies is that for people not doing any exercise, move a little bit. Set a modest goal. Once you do that, then move to the next level.
I hope you found this helpful!
love, b
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