Physical Activity Guidelines

Breaking a sweat...

If you exert yourself sufficiently to break a sweat you are not only boosting your weight loss efforts but also conditioning your heart, blood vessels and lungs, and releasing happy hormones called endorphins that improve mood and sleep quality.

With regular exercise, you will change your body composition and the way your body uses energy. If you exercise regularly, you will increase your basal metabolic rate (BMR) - that means you will burn more calories even when you are sleeping or watching TV.

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You will also:

  • Reduce your risk of health complications like heart attack or stroke
  • Control your weight and body composition
  • Lower your blood pressure and cholesterol level
  • Lower your risk of type 2 diabetes
  • Lower your risk of certain cancers like colon cancer
  • Improve the condition of your bones, muscles and joints and lower your risk of developing osteoporosis Reduce your risk of falls and injury
  • Feel better in general – with more energy and a happier mood
  • Feel more relaxed and enjoy better sleep

In recent years, exercise has been recognised as a form of medicine.

There are medical professionals who study for 4-6 years at university to become ‘exercise physiologists’. They are trained not only in general exercise for fitness and sports performance, but also in the use of exercise as a medicine to treat certain medical conditions. The beauty of exercise is that there are no negative side-effects.

Guidelines for physical activity:

  • Any activity is better than none
  • If you are inactive, start by doing some physical activity and increase frequency and duration over time
  • Do something you like – you will not be able to incorporate an activity you hate into your regular routine
  • Try not to sit for prolonged periods of time
  • Be active on most (preferably all) days of the week
  • Do a variety of different activities if you can:
    • Cardiovascular exercise gets your heart beating and makes you break a sweat
    • Strengthening exercises to condition your muscles
    • Activities that challenge your balance
    • Stretching to improve flexibility
  • Try to accumulate 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise OR 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise per week.
  • The more exercise you can do, the better.