Benefits of Physical Activity
It’s a very different world today than the one my parents, born in the 1910’s, grew up in. I’m guessing people then didn’t give a lot of thought to physical activity, daily movement was a necessary part of daily living. However, without the advances in medicine we’ve experienced over the last few decades, retirement years were short lived and ‘ageing’ as a ‘stage-in-life’ that could last several decades wasn’t something to worry about.
And then we come to my generation, those of us who have watched our parents ‘mostly’ enjoy lengthy retirement years. I say mostly enjoy because in very many cases, including my parents, dedicated physical activity simply wasn’t on their radar. Yes, while my mom raised and chased after 4 children and my dad, up to his 50’s, enjoyed playing golf, they really didn’t spend any other time focusing on their physical health, and definitely not from their 50’s onward. The result is that, while remaining mentally sound, I watched my mom (as my father had passed many years prior from an illness he’d likely would have survived if diagnosed today) struggle and suffer physically in her later years in life. She couldn’t have known that the life she was enjoying, at the exclusion of physical activity, was going to lead to unnecessary pain and discomfort as she aged.
I don’t want to be a downer here but there is a very important message to learn. What you physically do today will set you up for a stronger future, a future of independent living. And this is where my studying for a certification as a personal trainer started, with an explanation of the benefits of physical activity. For adults and older adults, there is strong evidence that regular physical activity can:
lower risk of early death
lower risk of heart attack
lower risk of stroke
lower risk of high blood pressure
lower risk of adverse blood lipid profile
lower risk of type 2 diabetes
lower risk of metabolic syndrome
lower risk of colon and/or breast cancer
improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness
prevention of falls
reduced symptoms of depression and better cognitive function (for older adults)
(See below for source reference)
WOW! - Right? But hmmm - let me circle back on the theme of independent ageing and be clear that I’m not just talking about physical independence but I’m also talking about independence from daily taking ‘pills’ to overcome many of the conditions above. I also remember the vast number of pills, not vitamin pills, each of my parents took everyday to offset many of the conditions above…and then more pills to combat the negative side effects of the pills they were taking, for the conditions above. If they’d had access to this information about the benefits of physical activity at my age, perhaps they could have at least tried the physical activity route to see if it could have helped with some of these conditions. (NOTE: Nutrition is also a part of this conversation but for the moment I’m focusing on physical activity).
Okay - and now for the coolest part of all for those who are not as inclined to be physically active, here are 3 key takeaways:
Some physical activity is better than none.
The benefits of physical activity far outweigh the possibility of adverse outcomes.
It only takes 150 minutes/week - of moderate intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, for health benefits. (Of course, more benefits occur with more physical activity)
We are so lucky to live in a time where medicine has advanced to a point where we are living longer lives than any generation before us and now we have the research to show us what we need to do to better enjoy a quality of life of our dreams.
Source Reference:
US Dept of Health and Human Services (2008). 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans: Be Active, Healthy and Happy
Note: The Advisory Committee rated the evidence of health benefits of physical activity as strong, moderate or weak. To do so, the Committee considered the type, number, and quality of studies available, as well as consistency of findings across studies that addressed each outcome. The Committee also considered evidence for causality and dose response in assigning the strength-of-evidence rating.