Please don’t get me wrong. This is not an article about how you shouldn’t exercise.
It has an important role in our health and wellness, but exercise is not the only way to move and stay healthy. What’s really key is physical activity.
All exercise is physical activity but not all physical activity is exercise. Exercise is the 
traditional, scheduled, planned, intentional movement you think of when you consider running, weight lifting, and of course your favorite Pilates class (join me through Glastonbury Parks Rec Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 to get your virtual fill of that). Physical activity is any movement that activates the muscles and expends energy. That’s pretty much every movement.
Many large, multi year studies show that the more physically active someone is the less likely they are to die of all causes, including cancer and diabetes. In addition the more physical activity we are the happier we are and the less likely we are to develop Alzheimer’s. And it’s a sliding scale. Add a little bit of physical activity and you’ll live longer and grow happier. Adding more only increases the benefit. That’s where exercise can come in. It’s a quick easy way to get moderate or vigorous physical activity in.
While all movement is good and better than sitting at work AND in our leisure time, to get the health benefits, we need 30 minutes of MODERATE physical activity a day. Again, this doesn’t have to be exercise, but it can be. It might be hard to tell what qualifies as moderate movement since it means exerting four times as much energy as you do sitting. Who can tell whether they are doing that? In general if you get a little winded or break a sweat that is a good key. But Google can also be helpful here. Search for examples of moderate physical activity or activities that use 4 METs (metabolic equivalent of task). METs are basically a ratio of the rate someone expends energy. You can find long lists online. Look for activities that are 4 METs or more to get your 30 minutes of MODERATE movement a day.
To save you some time, here are some examples of activities you may already do or enjoy that are MODERATE:
Gardening & Yardwork – most yardwork is moderate physical activity
Household Chores — not every chore is created equal. Washing dishes is not moderate, but it’s still physical activity so better than sitting on the couch. Vacuuming, sweeping, and cleaning the bathrooms usually gets a person to moderate.
Golfing — you can’t ride around the course to get moderate activity in this sport, you’ll need to carry your own clubs and walk the course.
Horseback Riding – both the fun of riding and all the care (brushing, cleaning the stables) gets you moderate movement
Intercourse – studies of young, healthy adults, show energy expenditure fluctuates when a couple is shaking the sheets. But enough time is spent at moderate levels to qualify (and men expend more energy than women).
I hope this starts to show that we have a lot more options. Thinking about reaching physical activity goals vs exercise goals might be the key to success. In the U.S. only about 23% of adults get the recommended 30-min of exercise pre day. But 50% get the recommended 30-minutes of moderate physical activity. The numbers show that physical activity is much easier to meet since twice as many of us are reaching the goal. But still half of us aren’t getting all the health benefits we could from moving.
Hopefully broadening our vision to physical activity might help encourage more people to move and reap all the health benefits. Movement matters, and you can make it happen in many fun or productive ways. There are a myriad of options if you don’t love traditional exercise.
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Exercise doesn’t need to be grueling! See what Maggie has to say about the No Pain, No Gain Fallacy.
Need Motivation to Move? Check out this blog!
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