Think your 30-minute gym session is all you need for optimal health? Think again says exercise physiologist Caitlin Reid.
It’s safe to say that most of us are familiar with the health guideline of getting at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each day. But many of us don’t realise this is just one aspect of our national physical activity guidelines.
According to the federal Department of Health and Ageing’s National Physical Activity Guidelines for Australians, the minimum level of physical activity required for good health includes four points:
Think of movement as an opportunity not an inconvenience.
Be active every day in as many ways as you can.
Put together at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days.
If you can, also enjoy some regular vigorous exercise for extra health and fitness benefits.
According to these guidelines, sedentary lifestyles with only 30 minutes of movement a day aren’t enough to keep us healthy. For better health and optimal weight loss, we need to move as often as we can.
A growing body of research is supporting this claim, with recent studies finding a daily 30-minute exercise session not being enough to combat the damaging effects that being sedentary for the remainder of the day has on our waistlines, blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels and blood glucose levels.
Prolonged, unbroken periods of immobilised muscle as seen when sitting for extended periods of time reduces the ability of lipoproteins to (substances carrying cholesterol in our blood) to efficiently manage healthy blood cholesterol levels. These findings have even been found in people who report being physically active (exercising for a minimum of 150 minutes per week).
Australian researchers have found that the more hours people spent watching television, even if they were meeting the exercise guidelines, the higher their waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose levels and triglyceride levels were.
The consequences of prolonged sitting have also been illustrated in the Canadian Fitness Survey, which found people who spent the majority of the day sitting had a significantly poorer long-term mortality rate, even if they were deemed to be “physically active”.
Before you go thinking that your exercise sessions are pointless, there is a simple solution.
The research also found that by simply breaking up your sedentary time improves waistline, body mass index, blood pressure levels, blood cholesterol levels and blood glucose levels, irrespective of the amount of exercise you do.
So for optimal health, try these simple changes:
Keep up at least 30 minutes of exercise daily.
Make sure you stand more, sit less and move often throughout the whole day.
Think of movement as an opportunity for better health rather than an inconvenience.
Every hour stand up from your desk and walk to the photocopier, water cooler or to see a colleague.
In fact, now you’ve finished this article, stand up and stretch your legs. It’s that simple!
Your say: What challenges do you encounter when trying to keep active?
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