Have you heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking?” Recent statistics from the World Health Organization have shown that lack of physical activity is the 4th leading risk factor for death worldwide. These findings found that low fitness was just as important as smoking, hypertension, and high cholesterol when discussing the risk of early death. We say this not to scare you, but to help you realize just how important your daily movement and activity are.

Beyond low activity levels causing disease, the great news is moderate levels of physical activity have been shown to help prevent disease! There are recent studies showing that physical activity is potentially as effective as many drug interventions – we can’t ignore this!

Here are a few of the MANY benefits of regular activity.

It significantly improves our heart health. You may not know, but our heart is a muscle, and exercise improves the ability of our heart muscle to contract – this increases the amount of blood our heart can pump, which reduces our heart rate and blood pressure long term. Excellent!

Strengthens our musculoskeletal system. Regular activity reduces the risk of hip fracture by 55%, reduces the risk for falls, and increases our bone mineral density. Physical activity improves our overall strength, and strength improves our capacity to live independently. This means that especially as we age and want to maintain our independence, we must be focusing on strength training!

Improves mental health. Regular physical activity reduces symptoms of fatigue, pain, low mood, and anxiety. It has also been shown to improve self-esteem and sleep quality, which is huge for our body’s recovery overall. Many of us are living in chronic stress with the demands of modern life, physical activity is a wonderful tool to help us manage the stress.

In short, physical activity improves our physical and mental function, which helps us age better and maintain vitality. It is recommended that adults have 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise per week, with two additional strength training sessions. However, if you are not at this level yet, start SMALL and gradually increase your activity. Focus on sitting less throughout the day, walking more, and remember that SOMETHING (no matter how small) is always better than nothing.

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