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How much exercise is enough to be healthy?

How much exercise is enough to achieve good health?

This is a question I get asked quite often and I usually need to ask the person what their idea of good health is as I have learned that people have varied definitions of good health.  Some of these are:

  •  Be a healthy weight
  • Get rid of back pain
  • Reduce the risk of heart disease
  • Perform regular exercise because they know it’s healthy
  • Reduce risk of cancer
  • Control diabetes
  • Stay active as they get older
  • Reduce or manage stress
  • Enjoy the ‘feel good’ experience they get from regular exercise
  • Some people even say “I don’t want to die early; I want to see my grandkids grow up.”
You might have your own idea of what good health means to you but at the end of the day no matter what your definition of good health is, just about all the research shows that regular activity is the key to improving it.
The Commonwealth Government’s Dept. of Health has guidelines for the minimum amount of physical activity that an adult should do for good health and wellbeing.

Read these Govt. guidelines and then read my tips and comments on how you can achieve this.
Physical Activity Guidelines: (18-64 year old)

  •  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 (2½ to 5 hours) of moderate intensity physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes (1¼ to 2½ 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 2 days each week.

Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines:

  •  Minimise the amount of time spent in prolonged sitting.
  • Break up long periods of sitting as often as possible.

Guidelines for 65 and Over
These guidelines are more subjective but still recommend 30 minutes of physical activity daily.

My first tip is:
Don’t freak out about trying to do 2½ to 5 hrs of physical activity a week.  It’s physical activity that is important not formal exercise.
Physical activity such as:

  • Walking a few minutes from your car to railway/bus station
  • Mowing the lawn and washing the car
  • Lunchtime walk
  • Housework
  • Use a shopping basket instead of trolley at shops
  • Walking the dog and gardening
  • Playing social golf, tennis or riding a bike
  • Having a swim in the surf and walk along the beach
  • Yoga class

All of these activities count towards your weekly total of physical activity without them being classed as formal exercise.

About the only formal exercise you might have to do is the strength training 2 days each week and as I keep banging on:
“Strength training is the no.1 mode of exercise to keep you feeling younger for longer and fighting the effects of ageing”.
If you accumulate 30 minutes of activity each day that will give you 3 ½ hours for 7 days.Quote: “No matter how slow you are going you are still moving faster than sitting on the couch.” Anonymous.

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