Lets Get Active!!

Why are we all getting so inactive?
When did physical activity become such a chore?
Visiting a patient recently we started to discuss exercise. She has heart failure, despite this it is important that she exercises, completes 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week.
I told her this was the target. She looked at me as if I had gone mad.

150 minutes. That’s 30 minutes 5 times a week. Or 21 minutes a day.
That can be sub-divided into smaller time slots, 3 x 10 mins, or less as long as it is moderate intensity, enough to make you feel slightly out of breath.
Gardening, mowing the lawn, walking the dog, cycling to work, housework. These are all things which can count towards our minutes, if done with enough vigor.

So why then are only 1 in 3 adults doing enough activity? The other 2 are putting their health at risk. To the same degree as smoking or obesity puts us at risk.
When did we get lazy, or is it that we just do more, is exercise just pushed aside? Do we simply fail to prioritise exercise in amongst the other daily activities we complete?
Television, computers, smart phones, these probably all play their part in reducing our activity. Our lives are more sedentary. We drive rather than walk or cycle. We order a takeaway and it is delivered to our door, even our shopping can be done for us now, delivered home for a few pounds.
However at the same time access to gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools has increased, longer opening times, more availability, more choice.
Is it just that we chose to sit down with a glass of wine and watch the television rather than change into our gym kit and go back out to exercise?

I understand that life is busy. Mine is too, I have an NHS job, a private physio business and a flower farm as well as helping the OH with the small holding, not to mention the children, the dog and the ponies. I don’t use the gym, our local services are difficult for me to access with the OH working away. However I make the most of activity I can do at home in amongst the chores, work and personal things I have to do.

So this is my challenge to you. How much activity do you do in a week? Is it anywhere close to the recommended amount? I challenge you to try to complete 150 minutes of exercise this week. Be it hoovering, digging the garden, mowing the lawn, walking the dog, using the children’s skipping rope or hula hoop once they are in bed, a jog, a cycle, a swim. Be inventive, do step ups on your front door step, tricep dips in front of Eastenders using the sofa, bounce on the trampoline with your kids. Don’t make an excuse, just for this week, let’s see if we can increase our personal activity levels in the run up to London 2012, Harder, Faster, Stronger. Come on, get active!

That Blooming Physio
Xxx