May 22, 2009
Adding Moderate Exercise to Your Day Adds Up
We’ve all heard that moderate exercise activities you can work into your everyday schedule can help keep you healthy.
Moderate exercise can dramatically reduce the incidence of heart disease, the nation’s leading cause of death. It can also fend off other chronic illnesses such as obesity and diabetes.
Years ago, when doctors told people to get out and exercise, they took up swimming, jogging, tennis or weightlifting. But today, people seem to be too busy fit exercise into their schedules. Who can devote an hour a day, plus driving time, to a tennis court, track, golf advice and instruction, gym or swimming pool?
Meanwhile, we incorporate more time-saving measures into our daily routines. We park in high-rise garages and take elevators. We build fences rather than take dogs for walks. We install backyard pools for taking dips instead of swimming laps. And we maintain that back yard while sitting on a mower instead of pushing one.
Today, more than 60 percent of American adults not to mention children don’t get enough exercise, according to the American Heart Association.
Yet reversing that trend may take less effort than medical experts once believed. As little as 15 minutes of exercise a day will lower heart disease risk because exercise appears to be cumulative, said I-Min Lee, lead author of the study published in the Aug. 29, 2000 issue of Circulation. “We should aim to do two 15-minute sessions each day, or expend 150 more calories a day.”
“These data clearly indicate that physical activity is associated with decreased (heart disease) risk” by 10 percent or more, Lee wrote in the study.
The study corroborated a 1996 U.S. surgeon general’s report that said the benefits of exercise can be gained a little at a time because it all adds up. In other words, you get the same health advantage with 10 minutes of exercise three times a day as you can with one 30-minute session.
This research claims health benefits accrue with moderate exercise. Further, most advice calls for moderate exercise adding up to about 30 minutes a day, three to four times a week.
So what specifically is “moderate” exercise?
Like Lee, the National Institutes of Health define moderate exercise as roughly equivalent to physical activity that uses about 150 calories of energy per day, or 1,000 calories per week.
“I usually tell people that an effort equivalent to walking three to four miles per hour is considered moderate,” Lee said. “So they can mark out a one-mile course and try to walk that in 15 to 20 minutes. The effort they expend is approximately moderate.”
“The key to the link between exercise and health is consistency,” said Dr. Bryant Stamford, an exercise physiologist who directs the Health Promotion and Wellness Center at the University of Louisville, Ky. “Do something every day and try to burn off at least 150 calories.”
Here are some examples of moderate exercise that will burn 150 calories.
Your body will tell you when you are reaching a moderate amount of exercise:
An increase in your heart rate is a good indicator that your activity is benefiting you, according to Stamford and Steven Keteyian, program director for the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute in Detroit. Look for a noticeable increase, but not enough to make your heart pound.
Another indication of moderate exercise is an increase in breathing rate, the experts said. But if your breathlessness is uncomfortable, you have overdone it. “You should be able to carry on a conversation fairly easily while exercising,” Keteyian said.
Moderate exercise also will cause a light sweat, Keteyian said. The common denominator here is comfort – get active just to the point of discomfort and not beyond, and keep that up for at least 10 minutes.
“Your body doesn’t differentiate between exercising and raking leaves, exercising and washing your car,” Keteyian said. “Whether you run five miles, shovel snow or take your dog for a walk, your body sees it all as exercise.”
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