This piece is about spending less of our waking day sitting down and using more time throughout the day improving your wellbeing and fitness. The importance of exercise at whatever age for longer life has been bandied about a lot in the media recently.It seems we are not listening.But scientists confirm exercise is the answer to keeping fit and well.
Though many of us view taking exercise as a good thing we are not good at it.Regular gym work or other high impact exercise may not appeal,or even be physically possible for many of us.
The researchers at the University of Utah asked themselves just how much exercise and of what type is necessary for our health.Their conclusion is quite startling.Far from advocating a severe exercise regime following the findings of their research, they say that just two minutes an hour during a normal day of light exercise like walking, and including 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week,would result in a 33 per cent reduction in risk of dying from a sedentary life style.The repeated short hourly walks, or other moderate activity like housework, light gardening,or other similar simple tasks,add-up to use sufficient energy to make a significant difference in terms of our living longer.That sounds better! No prolonged periods of high impact exercise are apparently essential. Just trade off two minutes of sitting down for two minutes hourly activity.The idea is to build-up gently if you are not accustomed to exercise perhaps because of a restricting health problem.You should always check with your doctor to make sure you are not doing something inappropriate for your current condition.
Given a result like this,it should be possible to work this moderate exercise into our daily lives.(see saga report). Every hour you could:
Take a short walk ( if you have one walk the dog)
Lightly rake over a vegetable patch, empty the kitchen swing-bin, load-up the dishwasher
Use a static exercise bike
Take to the stairs and do a household chore
…and so on
In order to benefit you don’t have to obsessively measure this time-out from sitting every hour on the hour.No clipboard and stopwatch is necessary. The level of varied activity suggested should average out over the day.You can keep the interest alive by doing different things. Let it become a habit such that it becomes an integral and essential part of your everyday life.
According to a recent survey by Braun,a supplier of blood pressure monitors, reported in The Times health and fitness trackers are used daily by one in ten people.These trackers include pedometers and heart monitors.This use of wearable technology has increased considerably over the past five years.
A simple pedometer, for instance, can be fun to use and habit forming. A reading of 5,000 steps per day is probably an average target to strive for,10,000 or more is excellent for fitness.