By David E. Conroy and Sherry Pagoto
November 17, 2018
It’s that time again.
The Department of Health and Human Services has released a new edition of
the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.
That sound you hear is Americans collectively sighing.
Let’s be honest:
Physical activity guidelines can be tough. As behavioral scientists with
expertise in exercise motivation, we will be the first to admit that
maintaining a physically active lifestyle isn’t easy. This is what we do, and
we don’t even always hit the goal. Life is messy and often gets in the way of
even the best intentions. Let’s take a deep breath, unwrap these new guidelines
and talk strategy.
The guidelines
recommend that all adults do at least 150 minutes per week of physical activity
at an intensity that elevates the heart rate. Older adults should add balance
exercises. And with the exception of women who are pregnant or nursing, adults
should lift weights using all major muscle groups at least twice a week.
The guidelines also recommend
that school-age children and adolescents be active for 180 minutes per week.
Preschoolers should be active throughout the day. You might be thinking, who
has time for all this exercise?
The good news is that
the guidelines now recognize that fitting in big blocks of time for exercise is
not necessary to get health benefits. For the first time, the guidelines don’t
require that physical activity occurs in bouts of 10 consecutive minutes or
more to be valid. All activity counts. So that climb up and down the stairs at
work every day counts toward your goal (as long as you’re raising your heart
rate).
The new guidelines
also emphasize a “move more, sit less” message to encourage everyone to do just
a little more physical activity and to spend a little bit less time sitting.
Physical activity isn’t all or nothing. Every little bit comes with health
benefits, so if reaching the guideline seems overwhelming, that’s okay. Just
try to do a bit more than you did yesterday. Improvement counts as success whether
you meet the guidelines or not.
But how? And when?
If you think the
guidelines are overwhelming, you are not alone — this is one of the most common
complaints about the guidelines we hear from the thousands of people we have
studied and counseled in exercise programs. People often feel hopeless about
changing their lifestyle dramatically. One way to tackle a large goal is to
break it down into smaller pieces.
Consider a marathon
runner. No new runner starts off running 26 miles; each one has to build up to
it. They break monstrous goals into smaller pieces that increase steadily over
many months.
You can approach the
new physical activity guidelines in the same way. By tracking your progress,
using incrementally more challenging goals, and celebrating milestones of
achievement, you can move yourself closer to reaching the big goal.
The first goal you
set should be a pretty easy one — so easy you should be thinking, “Oh, come on!
That is too easy!”
Say, for example, you
get about 30 minutes of exercise per week. Could you increase to 35 minutes per
week for the next three weeks? Once you’ve nailed 35 minutes for two to three
weeks, bump it up to 40 minutes. The idea here is that you are building slowly,
getting used to each step before moving onto the next step. Each step is also
enhancing your physical fitness and conditioning so the next step won’t feel
much more difficult than the one before. From a time-management perspective,
sneaking in an extra five minutes here and there is also far easier than finding
time blocks of 30 to 60 minutes.
If you are far from
150 minutes right now, forget about 150 at the moment. Come up with a goal that
is “Oh, come on!” easy and then go from there. You can track your progress with
wearable devices, smartphone apps or good old-fashioned pen and paper. However
you track your progress, it is important to have a plan that you can track and
keep trying to raise the bar for yourself — ever so gently.
The experts call
physical activity the “best buy” in public health. And the guidelines are based
on evidence from thousands of studies.
With this evidence, an expert panel concluded that exercise increases our life
spans, prevents that sneaky annual weight gain and reduces the risk of almost
every chronic disease: cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many cancers. No
other single behavior can do as much good for your health. By investing some
time into exercise now, you get to cash in later. Think of it as a 401(k) plan
for a long, healthy and happy life.
Of course, we don’t
always make decisions in our long-term self-interest. We are wired more toward
immediate rewards, and many health benefits of physical activity take years to
appear. Some may be hard to notice at all, like preventing heart disease.
Fortunately, exercise
has many immediate benefits. One of the biggest is the “feel good” effect
afterward. People consistently feel more focused, less stressed and more
energized after physical activity. Studies now show that regular physical
activity can actually reduce anxiety and depression — with effects equal to
antidepressant medication or psychotherapy. We are all just one
workout away from feeling better than we do right now.
One
word of caution: Be careful not to push too hard too soon. Exercising hard can
feel unpleasant. Most people don’t repeat activities that feel unpleasant. Find
something you enjoy and keep it fun if you want that behavior change to stick.
When you hear all the news about the new physical
activity guidelines, try not to let it discourage you. Set the numbers aside for
now and just ask yourself, “How can I move a little more and sit a little less
than I do now — and how can I make it fun?”
You got this.
Conroy is
professor of kinesiology and human development at Pennsylvania State
University. Pagoto is professor of allied health sciences at the University of
Connecticut. This report was originally published on theconversation.com.
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