Healthy Happy Life Info: The Low-down on Physical Activity

by Cathy Johnson

We often hear physical activity is vital for good health, but how much do we need and what type is best?

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Making exercise a regular part of your life can be tough when there are countless competing demands on your time. If you need convincing (or just reminding) of the enormous benefits for your health, here are some points to ponder – along with the expert low down on how much and what kinds of exercise to consider doing.

Why do we need regular physical activity?

We all know smoking is a big killer, but did you know being inactive is ranked just behind smoking as a cause of ill health? If you exercise regularly, you're less likely to get heart disease and strokes, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and certain cancers (these include bowel cancer, plus breast cancer if you're a woman or prostate cancer if you're a man). Being physically active can also help you manage stress and ward of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.

The power of physical activity to transform health is so significant, many experts consider it a medicine (but unlike many other medicines, it needn't cost anything and is pretty much without unpleasant side effects).

If the idea of working out in a gym, getting up at 5am to go walking, or jogging in your lunch break puts you off exercise, don't despair. Choose something that you enjoy and that works for you and your lifestyle. The most important thing is to get some form of activity, and if you enjoy it then you're more likely to make it a priority. So if you don't like walking, try dancing or rock climbing. You might not be interested in running, but you might love kayaking or yoga.

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How much do you need?

Australia's current physical activity guidelines recommend:

at least 30 minutes at moderate intensity on most, preferably all, days of the week
be active in as many ways as possible throughout the day
to try to include some vigorous activities for extra benefits.

(The recommendations for children, young people and older people are different.)

Moderate intensity is where you have a slight but noticeable increase in your breathing and heart rate. Another guide is a level at which you can just hold a conversation. Research has shown this is enough to cut your risk of heart disease by up to 40 per cent. You also take a significant step towards warding off diabetes and stroke. Brisk walking is a good way to meet the target, but other activities like gardening, housework or even playing ball games with your children can also get your heart rate up enough to reap the health benefits.

It's worth noting new research suggests it's also very important to avoid long periods sitting because of links between such sedentary behaviour and a range of chronic diseases.

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Do you need to do your 30 minutes all in one go?

No. Research suggests you can break it up into chunks. Some research shows each chunk should be no shorter than 10 minutes or the benefits are reduced. But there are other benefits that come when you do even very short or small movements – it could be as small as switching from sitting to standing.

To optimise your health, you need both small movements throughout the day (that don't necessarily change your heart rate) as well as movement that raises your heart rate for sustained periods.

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Is 30 minutes a day all you need?

It was the minimum amount recommended for the current National Physical Activity Guidelines because switching from doing nothing to doing 30 minutes a day gives you the best "bang for buck" in terms of health benefits. Current evidence suggests around half of all Australian adults aren't getting this amount of activity.

But research has shown 30 minutes a day isn't enough to prevent weight gain based on what most of us are eating. This is why new dietary guidelines have recommended we aim for 45 to 60 minutes a day. If this sounds impossible, you could also eat less. Whichever way you go, you need an energy balance – that is the amount of energy you consume in food and drinks need to be no more than the energy your body needs to maintain a healthy weight. With more than 60 per cent of Australian adults overweight or obese, many of us need to find ways to attain this energy balance.

Research also suggests bumping that target up to 60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a day is probably needed if you want to ward off some of the cancers that have been shown to be sensitive to exercise (such as breast, bowel and prostate cancer).

Does the exercise need to be vigorous?

No, exercise doesn't need to be vigorous to be beneficial. But putting more "huff and puff" into your activity can bring benefits over and above increased daily movement or moderate-intensity exercise, especially for the heart. One extra benefit from a more vigorous activity like running is that it can save you time. A vigorous half hour jog is thought to have the same protective effect against heart disease and diabetes as walking briskly for an hour.

Some forms of vigorous activity (like running) are better at strengthening your bones. That's because running creates higher impact forces on your legs and spine as your feet hit the ground and these forces trigger new bone growth. But higher impact exercises also carry a greater risk of injury.

You don't have to exercise vigorously to protect yourself against heart disease, diabetes or cancer (or to lose weight) though. Moderate intensity is considered fine, so long as you do enough.

And ideally you want to exercise every day, because a lot of the health benefits relate to bodily changes that are short term. But again, anything is better than nothing.

Is walking enough?

Walking is what's known as 'aerobic' exercise – because it gets your heart and lungs working. Aerobic exercise is considered the most important type of exercise because it is the form most effective at warding off heart disease, the number one killer in Australia. Aerobic exercise also has a large impact on your ability to do daily activities.

Two other types of exercise that also matter are resistance (or strength) training and flexibility. If you're over 65, exercise that trains your balance and coordination (such as tai chi or dance) is thought to be important, and you should include exercise that conditions your bones.

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What is 'incidental' exercise?

These are the bits of exercise you do in the course of your daily life (such as walking to the shops from your car or vaccuming the house) as distinct from the deliberate exercise you do when you go for a run or visit the gym. It is important not to cut back on incidental exercise when you start doing more structured exercise because it all helps burn kilojoules as well as condition your muscles. So don't start driving to the bus stop because you're tired from your morning run!

And remember, spending long chunks of time sitting might partially undo the benefits of daily exercise so even the incidental exercise of walking to the bin or photocopier is important.

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Do you need to see a doctor before starting out?

If you want guidance on whether that's necessary, there is an online questionnaire called the Australian Pre-exercise Screening System (APSS) that can help. The good news is, even if you've got a health problem, some type of exercise will still be possible in most cases. You will just need to get tailored advice.

The bottom line is to look for solutions, rather than excuses or reasons why you can't exercise. Ask others who manage regular exercise how they do it. And remind yourself, it's something that really matters.

As exercise researcher Dr Alicia Thorp, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute puts it: We all need to move as much as we can throughout the day.

"Stand up. Move more, more often. This should be your mantra for daily living," she says.

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