Last fall the WHO (World Health Organization) came out with some updated guidelines. I now we’ve been getting a lot of conflicting messaging from random big organizations trying to tell us how to live our lives, but this one may be worth considering. The WHO is trying to prevent you from sitting yourself to death, and so they’ve redescribed physical activity and it’s requirements.
Bottom line up front? Our standards are moveable and if you look into, we’ve altered our normative values and standard several times for pretty much everything. Because these things are dependent on societal choice and buy-in, it typically doesn’t work. If you think about it, our weight standards have really shifted and are likely to continue moving to the right. It only makes sense, as all of our numbers go up, the average shifts to the right and it’s only reasonable to base guidelines relative to the bell curve. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s what’s happening. So let’s dive into physical activity.
The WHO has changed their guidelines to suggest you perform moderate exercise for 150-300 minutes per week. 30-60 minutes per day, 5 days a week. They’ve also taken away the minimums. Previously, they suggested you needed to do at least this much work consecutively in order for it to be productive. They’re so desperate for you to do something, they took away that minimum amount. So really, you can do about 3 minutes of moderate physical activity every hour for 7 hours, 7 days a week and meet the minimum standard. It might be more work than just knocking a large chunk out at once, but some people really don’t think they can leave their chairs for that long.
Now what’s moderate physical activity? I think they messed up here in guiding you because moderate and vigorous overlap. Moderate is effort of 5-6/10 while vigorous is 5+/10. I’d consider dividing a scale of 10 into thirds and going from there. That being said, I’d suggest that moderate activity is 4-6/10 and vigorous is 7+/10 of perceived effort. Minor details, but really they’re important when you do the math. If you think a 5/10 is vigorous and then you do only 75 minutes of activity for the week, you’ve fallen short by 50%.
They’ve also broadened their exercises. It’s no longer heavily focused on aerobic activity but now includes more anaerobic activity such as strength training. Aerobic work is still very important and you should keep doing it, but you can’t leave out strength training. Did you know some research has suggested that there is a correlation between your grip strength and your mortality? You might want to think about that. Also, if you’re trying to lose weight, it’s FACT that you will lose more, and lose more effectively, if you perform strength training. The calorie burn lasts longer after the work out than it does with cardio work. Have you heard anything about bone density? This is most commonly heard in relation to osteoporosis. This is when your bone is no longer solid and is weakened due to a multitude of things. But strength training can help. The weight bearing nature and the force through the bones stimulates the cells to do their natural job and breakdown to build up better and stronger. So lift those weights!
My comments are just a start. Think critically about the above information because there’s a lot I didn’t touch on. Consider that these guidelines are a blanket statement meant to target the average person with no other health concerns. Is that you? Really? Do you think that your weight might have play here and could require some adjustments on the time requirement? How about your goals – are you trying to get toned, lose weight, increase strength, increase muscle bulk, reduce cardiovascular stress, eliminate hypertension, get rid of diabetes? What are you trying to do? That’s going to effect what is required of you, that and so much more. If you don’t take the time to consider what it is you are trying to achieve and put in some thoughtful effort on what that requires of you, this information is useless. Remember, it’s a GUIDELINE, not a personalized prescription for you. All I want is for you to have a good quality of life and maintain your independence for as long as you can, but I’d love to take you even further if you’re willing.
Articles: Bone density; WHO
home 