Are You Active Enough?

If you were to audit your day on how much time you spend sitting or being inactive versus times you are active, how do you think it would look?

Considering time sleeping, sitting in the car, sitting to eat, sitting at work, sitting to watch TV or while scrolling your phone or tablet, it doesn’t take long to see how quickly being inactive can take up your day.

A lot of this stuff are things we have to do or enjoy doing, so this isn’t to say to stop any of these things but to be more aware of the time spent being inactive and how you can add more activity into your day.

The World Health Organization has actually declared physical inactivity as an independent risk factor for developing chronic disease and is now the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. It’s serious stuff.

Canadian physical activity guidelines are currently to participate in 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week in bouts of at least 10 minutes at a time and 2 strength building activities per week. Said another way that’s 5, 30-minute cardio sessions per week and 2 strength training sessions per week.

According to the Stats Canada website, the average working adult in Canada is sedentary for 68.9% of their day and accumulate on average 79.5 minutes of physical activity per week, well short of the recommended 150 minutes.

If you are someone who is already meeting the physical activity guidelines, congratulations! You are doing great things for your body, your health and physical abilities and you are an above average Canadian when it comes to taking care of your health through exercise and being active! Keep it up!

If you are not, don’t feel bad. Use these guidelines to help plan out some time for you to be more active in your day. We are just looking for about 30 minutes.

Some ideas to fit more activity into your day could be to go for a walk on your lunch break instead of sitting in the lunchroom, go to the gym a twice a week for a strength training workout for 30 minutes or plan some chores at home to stay active while getting some extra cleaning or organizing done to name a few.

The idea is to replace some of your sitting time, with active time. Just a little bit here and there adds up and makes a big difference over time. Be mindful or your sitting time verses active time and do your best to be a little more active throughout your day. Your health depends on it!