How Much Physical Activity Should You Do to Stay Healthy?

A lot of diet and exercise advice is geared towards fitness freaks and weight loss wishers, but what about your average Joe (or Jo) who just wants to look after their wellbeing? Let’s say you’re a working-age adult (19-64), how much physical activity do you need to do in order to keep healthy?

 

Whether you want to maintain or improve your wellness, you need to do two types of exercise on a weekly basis; aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity. How much you need to do depends on your age, so don’t follow these guidelines if you’re under the age of 19 or over 65. For the rest of you, your fitness regime should incorporate at least 150 minutes a week of aerobic exercise at a moderate intensity, which means taking up activities like fast walking or cycling. On two or more days a week, you also need to perform muscle-strengthening activities that work all major muscle groups (i.e. your legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms). Alternately, you could swap the 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise for 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, such as running or tennis, or you could mix it up! You can do activities that strengthen your muscles on the same day or on different days as your aerobic activity, just choose whatever is best for you.

 

A great way to do your recommended 150 minutes of weekly physical activity is to break it down into manageable chunks of 30 minutes on 5 days a week. If you’re aiming for moderate-intensity activity, you know you’re on the right track if you breathe faster, feel warmer and have an elevated heart rate. You should be able to talk, but not sing the words to a song. Good examples of activities to choose from include walking fast, water aerobics, riding your bike on level ground or with a few hills, playing doubles tennis, pushing a lawn mower, hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading, volleyball and basketball.

 

When it comes to vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, your options are jogging, running, swimming fast, riding your bike fast or on hills, singles tennis, football, rugby, using a skipping rope, hockey, aerobics, gymnastics and martial arts. To determine whether or not you’re at the right level of intensity, check your speaking ability. You shouldn’t be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath. Moreover, you should be breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate should have gone up quite a bit. Generally, you’ll get the same health benefits from 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity as you would from 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity.

 

You count muscle-strengthening exercises in repetitions and set, with a repetition being one complete movement of an activity (like lifting a weight or doing a sit-up) and a set being a group of repetitions. On your two days of muscle-strengthening workouts, you should aim to complete eight to 12 repetitions in each set. While one set of each muscle-strengthening activity is a worthy goal, you’ll get even more benefits if you do two or even three sets. However, you may have to build up to this if you’re just starting out. The way to get the health benefits from muscle-strengthening activities is to do them to the point where you struggle to complete another repetition. You can do muscle-strengthening exercises at home or in the gym. This might mean lifting weights, working with resistance bands, yoga, heavy gardening like digging and shoveling, or doing exercises that use your body weight for resistance, such as push-ups and sit-ups.

Categories: adults, aerobic activities, aerobic activity, Health Benefits, Heart Rate, intensity activity, intensity aerobic, moderate intensity, muscle strengthening

How to Get Fitter and Healthier When You Use a Wheelchair

When you use a wheelchair, physical fitness and exercise isn’t your top priority – but it should be. Getting active is vital to your health and wellbeing, and can also help you to manage your daily life more easily. As a wheelchair user, you can face particular fitness and exercise challenges, but whatever your preferences and level of physical ability, there will be options that are right for you. Regular aerobic exercise and strength training is just as important for your wellness as it is for other adults’, and there are many reasons why you should get active.

 

Not only is regular physical activity is good for your physical and mental health, but is can also help you to meet new people. YMCAfit specialist tutor Philip Gill, who specialises in training fitness professionals who work with wheelchair users and people with other disabilities, argues there are a range of reasons why getting active is important for wheelchair users. ‘Using a wheelchair can make it more difficult to do cardiovascular physical activity that raises your heart rate and makes you warm enough to break a sweat,’ Gill notes. ‘This kind of exercise is important for the health of your heart and lungs. Missing out on this kind of exercise can contribute to weight gain over time.’ He adds, ‘Manoeuvring or pushing a wheelchair can also put particular strain on certain muscles in the upper body, making strains or other injuries more likely. Muscle-strengthening exercises can help you to manage your wheelchair in daily life, and avoid these kinds of injuries.’

 

According to the Department of Health, if you’re aged between 19 and 64, you need to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-level aerobic activity a week, and muscle-strengthening activity on two or more days a week, albeit these guidelines are designed for non-wheelchair users. However, Gill says these general guidelines can help you too. ‘In the absence of specific guidelines, wheelchair users can compare their activity levels to the general guidelines for adults,’ Gill asserts. ‘Many wheelchair users will not be doing anywhere near that volume of physical activity. If that’s you, then see these guidelines as a goal, which you should take small steps towards. Remember: even small increases in physical activity will bring health benefits.’

 

The question remains, however; what kinds of exercise can you do when you’re in a wheelchair? Gill explains this will depend on your fitness levels and the types of activity in which you are interested, as well as your personal goals. ‘Your aim might be to improve certain aspects of physical function, to help with daily life,’ says Gill. ‘Or you may be seeking improved fitness, or involvement in competitive sport. Whatever your level of physical ability and confidence, there are activities you can do to improve fitness.’

 

Cardiovascular exercise:

‘The aim is to raise your heart rate, and be warm enough to break a sweat,’ Gill comments. ‘You should be slightly out of breath: enough that you can still hold a conversation, but not sing the words of a song. If you’re unused to exercise or you haven’t exercised for some time, aim to start with 10-minute sessions, and gradually build up towards 20 minutes.’ Try swimming, wheelchair sprinting, using a rowing machine adapted for wheelchair use or wheelchair sports, such as basketball, netball and badminton.

 

Muscle-strengthening exercise:

‘The repeated pushing motion that is used to push a wheelchair means that the chest and shoulder muscles can become tight and prone to injury,’ Gill warns. ‘Meanwhile the back muscles, which are not involved in this pushing motion, can become weaker, because they are never worked. Because of this, it’s a good idea to focus on exercises that work the smaller muscles that support the pushing motion, such as the shoulder muscles: this can help prevent injury. You can also strengthen the back muscles by doing exercises that involve a pulling motion.’

Categories: Cardiovascular exercise, daily life, general guidelines, Heart Rate, muscle strengthening, Muscle-strengthening exercise, physical activity, pushing motion, shoulder muscles