6. Physical Activity
Around 10 years ago I would have called myself extremely fit. I would regularly cycle in excess of 250 miles per week and lived in the lovely (but hilly) South Wales region. I was also a part of a cycle club and attended the gym weekly…what went wrong?!
I think I lost my enthusiasm somewhere along the way…4 hours on a saddle didn’t appeal to me any more and I got into bad habits (much to the disappointment of my cycling buddies).
Even trying to consider exercise was a big thing and, like most people, I wanted the quick fix to make everything good!
I’ve read and feel confident talking about “heart rate zones”, “VO2max” and benefits and risks of HIIT training or tabata etc. However, none of it ever seems to follow a simple method.
Benefits
You don’t need a medical degree to know that physical activity is good for us. Some points to note:
Poor cardiorespiratory fitness is the number one cause of preventable deaths from any cause (link)
10% of breast and colon cancer is attributable to physical inactivity (link)
Around 6.9% of deaths from any cause was found to be attributable to sitting even if you meet the activity guidelines! (link)
Guidelines
The NHS guidelines (similar to the American guidelines) offer the following advice:
do strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on at least 2 days a week
do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week
spread exercise evenly over 4 to 5 days a week, or every day
reduce time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity
That still doesn’t clarify what strength training means to you or me or how we can simplify measuring intensity…:
Strength Training
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that a strength training program should be performed a minimum of two non-consecutive days each week, with one set of 8 to 12 repetitions for healthy adults or 10 to 15 repetitions for older and frail individuals. The idea is to use a weight that makes you feel fatigued by the last repetition!
Intensity
What’s the difference between moderate and vigorous activity? Do I need a heart rate monitor or a portable laboratory?!
The Talk Test helps us to simplify this difference in intensity and has been validated as a tool to measure exercise intensity:
Can talk but not sing = moderate
Can’t talk or sing = vigorous
Simple, although some people may think they can’t sing anyway even at rest but that’s a different debate!
My challenge:
So much more could be said on physical activity but keeping it short and simple, this is what I have been doing over the last couple of weeks:
Going for a 50 minute walk (around 5km) where I can talk but not sing at least three times per week (150 minutes moderate intensity)
I now use a sit stand desk to reduce the amount of sitting time each day and have the printer in a different part of the house to help me get up and walk
I’ve started yoga! Well, one session so far to improve my flexibility and I’m going to continue it once weekly
8 to 12 repetitions of a weight exercising each group of muscles twice weekly on non-consecutive days (10 minutes if you plan it right)