Wellness Through Education - Physical Activity Guidelines
Do you know how much you need to move each week?
Now that you've spent all week finding your reason to move, it's time to work out how much movement you need.
Staying active on a regular basis is essential to maintain and improve both physical and mental health. Luckily, the Australian Government created a set of guidelines for how much Physical Activity (PA) people should do each day.
These guidelines were created based on scientific literature, through collaboration between state and territory governments and exercise professionals.
The guidelines are broken down into three categories:
- Children and young adults: 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA per day
- Adults (18 - 64 yrs old): 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous PA in a week
- Older adults (65+ yrs old): 30 minutes of moderate PA on most, preferably all, days.
Resistance Training Guidelines
Alongside aerobic exercise, the Australian guidelines recommend muscle strengthening or resistance training (RT) on at least two days of the week. RT can be defined as the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscle. RT helps to improve joint function, bone density, muscle, tendon and ligament strength. RT can also improve your capacity to complete aerobic exercise, which in turn, assists in developing heart and lung fitness. Examples of resistance training include:
- Free weights
- Medicine balls
- Body weight
- Resistance bands
- Weight machines
Benefits of Physical Activity
These all seem like big numbers to achieve in a week, especially if you're doing little to no current exercise. Don't worry, something is always better than nothing and the guidelines are there to provide a target to build towards. Regular exercise however can induce benefits that include:
- Reducing the risk, or managing, type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease
- Maintaining or improving blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels
- Reducing the risk of some cancers
- Improving mobility, balance and stamina
- Pain management
- Improving mental health, self-confidence and sense of wellbeing
- Reducing cognitive decline as you age
- Weight management
- Increasing bone density and strength
This PA can be broken down into a variety of subtypes which include aerobic, strength and flexibility exercises. Aerobic exercise is rhythmic and continuous in nature and can be defined as any activity that is planned, structured and uses large muscle groups. The guidelines discuss moderate and vigorous intensity which, in its simplest form, refers to the rate of metabolic energy demand during exercise. There are a variety of measures to find the absolute terms of exercise intensity however, for ease of use, moderate intensity is where you are huffing and puffing but can maintain a conversation, as compared to vigorous intensity, whereby it becomes too difficult to hold a conversation. Examples of aerobic exercise include:
- Brisk walk/running
- Swimming
- Aerobics
- Cycling
- Tennis
- Golf (no cart)
Sitting Behaviours and Sleep
New, additional guidelines that have emerged in the last few years focus on trying to reduce sitting time and ensuring good sleep. For young children it is recommended between 9 and 11 hours of sleep, with 8 - 10 hours for teenagers and 7 - 9 hours for adults. Alongside this, keeping wake up and bed times consistent can assist with maintaining sleep hygiene. For both children and adults, long periods of sitting (especially in front of screens) can offset benefits of being physically active. Being proactive in limiting your sitting time can be done by using a sit-stand desk, walking meetings or going for a walk on your lunch break. If these aren't an option, something as simple as breaking up long periods of sitting with a walk around the house or office can assist.
