You don’t have to become a rambler, ‘hit the gym’ or run 5k to get exercise. However it is important that you get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week.
Why Exercise?
It is proven that a little exercise per day can improve your physical wellbeing. Whatever your age, there’s strong scientific evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life. People who exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing many long-term (chronic) conditions, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some cancers.
The Miracle Cure
We regularly neglect exercise, and many of us miss out on benefits of this free medicine. Exercise helps control weight, improves your mood, boosts your energy, helps you sleep better and it can be social and fun, as well as reducing your risk of stress, clinical depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Given the overwhelming evidence, it seems obvious that we should all be physically active. It’s essential if you want to live a healthy and fulfilling life into old age.
150 Minutes a Week
It is so easy to access this cure, all you need to do is 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. That’s 30 minutes a day for 5 days every week.
Moderate Exercise
Moderate exercises are those that raise your heart rate and breathing, but allow you to talk comfortably such as:
- brisk walking
- riding a bike
- dancing
- hiking
Vigorous Exercise
Vigorous exercise “gets your heart pumping” and makes it difficult to say more then a few words without needing to pause and catch your breath.
- running
- swimming
- riding a bike fast or on hills
- walking up the stairs
- sports, like football, rugby, netball and hockey
- skipping
- aerobics
- gymnastics
- martial arts
Exercise Safely
Important advice before you start exercising: If you have a long-term health problem or are not used to exercising, always check with your doctor or health professional before starting
any exercise activity.
Warm up
Warm up exercises (or ‘stretches’) prepare the body to enjoy exercise and feel the benefits of exercise more, such as losing weight, or helping to decrease blood pressure. For example:
- walking on the spot
- doing wide circles with the arms
- side steps
- stepping side to side while moving your arms in the air side to side.
If exercising as a family you could lightly throw or kick a ball around to warm up.
Try and warm up for 10 minutes before you start exercising.
It’s medically proven that people who do regular physical activity have lower risk of:
- coronary heart disease and stroke
- type 2 diabetes
- bowel cancer
- breast cancer in women
- early death
- osteoarthritis
- hip fracture
- falls (among older adults)
- depression
- dementia
So for just 30 minutes a day, help your body and help yourself.
Share this...
More Like This
Exercise in the home
Everyone should aim to achieve 150 minutes of exercise a week, but for some it may not be so easy. Here are some tips for exercise…
Read More
World Alzheimer’s Month – Simple tips to reducing your risk of Alzheimer’s
Simple tips for reducing risk of alzheimer’s – World alzheimer’s Month
Read More