Are you actually benefiting from your exercise routine?
For as long as we can remember, we’ve been told that exercise is good for our body and mind. But many people will spend an hour at the gym before returning to their sedentary daily routine.
Is this one hour of activity really beneficial if the other 23 are spent sitting still and glued to screens?
A new study on how people spend their time suggests that many people who exercise find ways to remain inactive throughout the rest of the day, which undermines the health benefits of exercise.
Several older studies have looked at the basics of how people divide their day between working, exercising, watching TV, and other daily activities. However, these older studies did not examine the relationship between these activities and the impact they may have on each other.
In order to burn calories, we cannot fall into the trap of exercising for a short period and then declining other physical activities on the principle that we already had our exercise for the day.
For example, on days where we exercise, we may be less inclined to take the stairs or clean the house. In treating physical activity as a singular, scheduled event, we are not truly living an active lifestyle.
The National Cancer Institute in conjunction with AARP delivered a detailed questionnaire to middle-aged men and women. They found that indeed, on days where they visited the gym or performed some scheduled exercise, they still spent most of the day sedentary.
When we use the term “active lifestyle”, it is apparent that many people do not take the “lifestyle” portion to heart.
Physical activity needs to be prevalent as we go about our entire day, and not just confined to a short block of time. It must become the norm in our daily lives if we want to reap the numerous benefits of exercising.
For additional information, please visit the New York Times.
Questions: Do you consider yourself to be physically active? What small changes could you make to become even more active on a daily basis?
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