What is the true about physical activity?

Table of Contents Show

Improve Your Ability to do Daily Activities and Prevent Falls
Increase Your Chances of Living Longer
Manage Chronic Health Conditions & Disabilities
Benefits of regular physical activity
A healthier state of mind
Aim for at least 30 minutes a day
Physical activity guidelines
Ways to increase physical activity
See your doctor first
Where to get help
Why should I be physically active?
The fight against obesity:
What the experts say:
What does this mean for you?

As you age, it’s important to protect your bones, joints, and muscles – they support your body and help you move. Keeping bones, joints, and muscles healthy can help ensure that you’re able to do your daily activities and be physically active.

Muscle-strengthening activities like lifting weights can help you increase or maintain your muscle mass and strength. This is important for older adults who experience reduced muscle mass and muscle strength with aging. Slowly increasing the amount of weight and number of repetitions you do as part of muscle strengthening activities will give you even more benefits, no matter your age.

Improve Your Ability to do Daily Activities and Prevent Falls

Everyday activities include climbing stairs, grocery shopping, or playing with your grandchildren. Being unable to do everyday activities is called a functional limitation. Physically active middle-aged or older adults have a lower risk of functional limitations than people who are inactive.

For older adults, doing a variety of physical activity improves physical function and decreases the risk of falls or injury from a fall. Include physical activities such as aerobic, muscle strengthening, and balance training. Multicomponent physical activity can be done at home or in a community setting as part of a structured program.

Hip fracture is a serious health condition that can result from a fall. Breaking a hip have life-changing negative effects, especially if you’re an older adult. Physically active people have a lower risk of hip fracture than inactive people.

Increase Your Chances of Living Longer

An estimated 110,000 deaths per year could be prevented if US adults ages 40 and older increased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity by a small amount. Even 10 minutes more a day would make a difference.

Taking more steps a day also helps lower the risk of premature death from all causes. For adults younger than 60, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day. For adults 60 and older, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.

Manage Chronic Health Conditions & Disabilities

Regular physical activity can help people manage existing chronic conditions and disabilities. For example, regular physical activity can:

Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day.
See everyday activities as a good opportunity to be active.
Try to find the time for some regular, vigorous exercise for extra health and fitness benefits.
Minimise the amount of time spent in prolonged sitting and break up long periods of sitting as often as possible.

Physical activity or exercise can improve your health and reduce the risk of developing several diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Physical activity and exercise can have immediate and long-term health benefits. Most importantly, regular activity can improve your quality of life.

A minimum of 30 minutes a day can allow you to enjoy these benefits.

Benefits of regular physical activity

If you are regularly physically active, you may:

A healthier state of mind

A number of studies have found that exercise helps depression. There are many views as to how exercise helps people with depression:

Exercise may block negative thoughts or distract you from daily worries.
Exercising with others provides an opportunity for increased social contact.
Increased fitness may lift your mood and improve your sleep patterns.
Exercise may also change levels of chemicals in your brain, such as serotonin, endorphins and stress hormones.

Aim for at least 30 minutes a day

To maintain health and reduce your risk of health problems, health professionals and researchers recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days.

Physical activity guidelines

Australia’s physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines state that:

Doing any physical activity is better than doing none. If you currently do no physical activity, start by doing some, and gradually build up to the recommended amount.
Be active on most, preferably all, days every week.
Accumulate 150 to 300 minutes (2 ½ to 5 hours) of moderate intensity physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes (1 ¼ to 2 ½ hours) of vigorous intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both moderate and vigorous activities, each week.
Do muscle strengthening activities on at least two days each week.

Ways to increase physical activity

Increases in daily activity can come from small changes made throughout your day, such as walking or cycling instead of using the car, getting off a tram, train or bus a stop earlier and walking the rest of the way, or walking the children to school.

See your doctor first

It is a good idea to see your doctor before starting your physical activity program if:

you are aged over 45 years
physical activity causes pain in your chest
you often faint or have spells of severe dizziness
moderate physical activity makes you very breathless
you are at a higher risk of heart disease
you think you might have heart disease or you have heart problems
you are pregnant.

Pre-exercise screening is used to identify people with medical conditions that may put them at a higher risk of experiencing a health problem during physical activity. It is a filter or ‘safety net’ to help decide if the potential benefits of exercise outweigh the risks for you.

Print a copy of the adult pre-exercise screening tool (PDF) and discuss it with your doctor, allied health or exercise professional.

Where to get help

Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional. The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances. The State of Victoria and the Department of Health shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website.

Physical activity can be defined as any movement of the body that requires energy expenditure. This includes any motion you do through the day excluding sitting still or lying down. For example, walking to class, taking the stairs, mowing the lawn, and even cleaning your house can be considered physical activity. Exercise is a type of physical activity but not every physical activity is exercise. Exercise is a planned, structured, and repetitive activity for the purpose of improving or maintain physical fitness.

Why should I be physically active?

The fight against obesity:

More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. In simplest terms, obesity is excessive fat accumulation that impairs health. Obesity has a wide range of medical complications;

Pulmonary disease
Cancer
Stroke
Gall bladder disease
Diabetes
And many more.

The cause of obesity in two people is rarely the same – genetics, lifestyles, and even viruses all play a role.

Fighting obesity can be influenced by certain risk-factors. The modifiable risk factors related to obesity include physical activity, excess caloric intake, and low socioeconomic status. There are also non-modifiable risk factors; age, heredity, ethnicity/race, culture, and metabolism.

Obesity is a growing epidemic in our nation. The change starts with us. Using this physical activity guide can give you the proper steps towards an obese free neighborhood, city, and nation.

What the experts say:

Performing physical activity on a regular basis will help to improve overall health and fitness, as well as decrease the risk for many chronic diseases (Center for Disease Control, 2010).

HEALTH: The World Health Association defines it as, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”
HEALTH-RELATED FITNESS: The American Academy of Sport Medicine defines health-related fitness as a set of attributes one already has or works towards. This develops through physical activity and aids in the performance of daily function with vigor and without fatigue.
CHRONIC DISEASES: A condition that impairs daily living, decreases longevity and quality of life. Some examples include cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.

What does this mean for you?

Benefits of Physical Activity
- Reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, certain cancers, and other chronic health conditions
- Help with weight control
- Strengthens bones and muscles
- Improves mental health, mood, and energy level
- Better quality life

Manhattan, Kansas is a community that supports and provides numerous types of physical activity opportunities for YOU!