Week 4 – Exercise
Filed Under (Fitness, Goal Setting) by Small Changes on 22-02-2010
A healthy lifestyle is one that includes a healthy diet and EXERCISE! Both are critical pieces of the puzzle called health! In 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services released their first set of exercise guidelines. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans state that at a minimum Americans need to be exercising for at least 30 minutes 5 days a week. In the spirit of Small Changes, this week’s change only asks that you exercise 30 minutes 3 times this week. If you already exercise more than 30 minutes 3 times a week, then your change for this week is to simply exercise more by adding another day of exercise or adding time to your workout routine.
Your Small Change: For this week, make sure you exercise for at least 30 minutes 3 times this week.
MORE INFORMATION
A closer look at the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans tells us that all American adults need to do at least 30 minutes of MODERATE exercise 5 times each week or at least 45 minutes of VIGOROUS exercise 2 times each week.
Note the emphasis on the words moderate or vigorous. These words describe how hard or intense each of your workouts should be. How do you know if your exercise is at a moderate or vigorous level of intensity? A simple way to tell if your exercise intensity is moderate or vigorous, is to use your breath or rate of breathing to gauge yourself. Someone who is exercising at a moderate intensity is:
- breathing faster
- developing a light sweat
- feeling some strain in their muscles
You can also use the talk test. If you can carry on a conversation of brief sentences but you can’t sing a song, you’re probably exercising in the recommended moderate-intensity range.
Someone who is exercising in the vigorous intensity range is:
- breathing deeply and rapidly
- developing a sweat after just 3-5 minutes
- feeling strain in their muscles
Using the talk test. Someone who is exercising vigorously can only get out short phrases and probably can not have a meaningful conversation.
Exercising at the correct level of intensity is important because if you are not exercising at least a moderate intensity it is technically really not considered exercise. Performing an activity, like walking, at less than a moderate intensity does not count as your 30 minutes of exercise, rather it is just a daily activity. It is important to note that being active in your daily life is important to your overall health, but it is not considered exercise. Exercise is any activity that gets your heart rate up and going.
Hello. Thank you for your effort to promote the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (PAGs). Engaging in physical activity is one of the most important steps that a person can take to improve his/her health. Further, the encouragement of “small steps” to behavior change holds promise.
However, the main messages of the PAGs are not accurately represented in this blog post. Specifically, the PAGs (with the tagline, “Be Active Your Way”) encourage people to individualize their physical activity (including time spent in any one session) to best fit their lifestyles. The PAGs do NOT promote the former public health mantra of “30 minutes a day, five days a week” because evidence shows that a more flexible routine demonstrates the same benefit. When you actually look more closely at the PAGs, you will see that the evidence-based guidelines recommend a weekly minimum amount of physical activity: 150 minutes of moderate; 75 minutes of vigorous; or an equivalent combination of the two. This activity may be divided in any way that a person chooses, as long as the bouts are at least 10 minutes each. (as a side note, children are recommended to engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day).
Please consult http://www.health.gov/paguidelines for further information/clarification.