What a Small Bump in Physical Activity Might Do For You
Bending Your Own Aging Curve
We all know that physical activity is important for our health, well being, and bending our own aging curve.
The bottom line is this —- Sit Less, Move More.
The Department of Health and Human Services recommends a weekly dose of at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise, or a combination of both.
Aerobic physical activity should be coupled with at least two days of strengthening activities (weight training, etc).
Moderate physical activity increases your heart rate and breathing so that you may sweat, but are able to carry on a conversation:
- Walking on a more level surface 3 – 4.5 mph
- Biking 5 – 9 mph on more level roads/surfaces
- Moderate effort on a stationary bike
- Tennis doubles
- Recreational swimming
Vigorous physical activity, or high intensity exercise, increases heart rate and breathing to a point of “hard and fast”, requiring a high amount of oxygen consumption to complete the activity. You’re breathing so hard that conversation is difficult:
- Race walking or jogging 5mph
- Biking more than 10mph or on steep uphill terrain
- Vigorous effort on a stationary bike (think spin class)
- Tennis singles
- Steady paced lap swimming
I’ve read a lot of studies indicating that an increase in physical activity correlates to an increase in our health and lifespan.
Unfortunately, many of these studies are based on self report data, which is often not reported accurately, creating study findings that can be inexact.
BUT, I just read a recent study using accelerometer measurements in a population based cohort of over 4800 Americans between the ages of 40 and 85.
Study participants wore an accelerometer, a tool that tracks rates of acceleration, for a week. Moderate to vigorous activity was estimated by summing accelerometer minutes at or above an established cut point.
The accelerometer collected the data.
The study reconvened ten years later to investigate the % of deaths across the cohort.
Study results correlate an increase of only 10 daily minutes of increased moderate/vigorous physical activity to a 6.9% decrease in deaths per year.
In other words, it’s estimated that 110,000 deaths per year could be prevented if Americans 40 – 85 years old increased their daily moderate to vigorous activity by only 10 minutes per day!
Talk about bending the aging curve!
Adding 20 minutes netted a 13% decrease and 30 minutes a 16.9% decrease.
Bottom line?
It’s possible to increase the odds of living longer by increasing your daily physical activity by only a small amount.
