Phys­i­cal Ac­tiv­i­ty (PA) & Ex­er­cise:

The Move­ment Med­i­cine

Phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty is ba­si­cal­ly any bod­i­ly move­ment. Ex­am­ples of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties are ex­er­cis­ing, walk­ing, rak­ing the yard, play­ing sports and hik­ing. Ex­er­cise and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty have so many health ben­e­fits, ex­perts call it “med­i­cine”. These ben­e­fits in­clude, pre­vent­ing poor health, re­duc­ing pre­ma­ture death, de­lay­ing the need for care in old­er adults, en­hanc­ing one’s qual­i­ty of life and men­tal health. More phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive chil­dren have bet­ter chances of be­ing health­i­er adults.

Phys­i­cal Ac­tiv­i­ty Guide­lines (PA)-

Chil­dren and Teens (5 - 18 years)

Chil­dren and ado­les­cents should aim to en­gage in at least 60 min­utes of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty through­out the day. These ac­tiv­i­ties should make them breathe faster and feel warmer. Ex­am­ples of ap­pro­pri­ate PA are play­ing, run­ning/walk­ing, swim­ming, skip­ping, climb­ing, sports, PE, danc­ing, cy­cling and work­ing out.

Please en­cour­age chil­dren to sit and lie around less and move more. Chil­dren meet­ing these guide­lines had bet­ter con­fi­dence and so­cial skills, bet­ter co­or­di­na­tion, stronger mus­cles and bones, im­proved health and fit­ness, health­i­er weight, im­proved sleep, con­cen­tra­tion and learn­ing.

Ac­tiv­i­ty (PA) Guide­lines -

Adults (18-65 years) and Old­er Adults (65+ years)

Adults are en­cour­aged to at­tain the fol­low­ing num­ber of min­utes of PA PER WEEK. Sev­en­ty-five min­utes of vig­or­ous in­ten­si­ty (mean­ing dur­ing the ac­tiv­i­ty you are breath­ing fast or have dif­fi­cul­ty talk­ing) OR 150 min­utes of mod­er­ate in­ten­si­ty (breath­ing is in­creased but you are able to talk) OR a com­bi­na­tion of both. Adults should aim to spend less time sit­ting or ly­ing around.

Ex­am­ples of vig­or­ous ac­tiv­i­ties are run­ning, play­ing sports and stair climb­ing. Mod­er­ate in­ten­si­ty ac­tiv­i­ties are walk­ing, cy­cling and swim­ming. Phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties that build strength are im­por­tant such as work­ing out, do­ing yo­ga or even car­ry­ing bags. More im­por­tant­ly for old­er adults, PA that im­proves bal­ance helps to pre­vent falls, ex­am­ples are danc­ing, tai chi, bowl­ing and march­ing on the spot.

Ex­er­cise, The Good Free Med­i­cine

Ex­er­cise and PA help adults to im­prove their health and sleep, main­tain a healthy weight, man­age their stress and im­prove their qual­i­ty of life. NCDs cause 80% of deaths in Trinidad and To­ba­go and world­wide. Ex­er­cise and in­creased PA can ac­tu­al­ly cause us to de­crease our chances of get­ting most com­mon NCDs. Ex­er­cise and PA de­creas­es our chances of Type 2 di­a­betes (-40%), Car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases (-35%, in­clud­ing hy­per­ten­sion, heart dis­ease, stroke), Can­cers (-20% Colon and breast), joints and back pains (-25%) and falls, de­pres­sion and de­men­tia (- 30%). Ex­er­cise and PA is tru­ly a med­i­cine that de­serves to be pre­scribed to every­one.

Per­sons not meet­ing these guide­lines are said to be phys­i­cal­ly in­ac­tive and are at risk for poor health and NCDs. Reg­u­lar phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty as a part of our dai­ly rou­tines through­out our lives en­ables us to live bet­ter and longer. How­ev­er, per­sons with se­ri­ous med­ical com­pli­ca­tions should con­sult a health care pro­fes­sion­al be­fore in­creas­ing their PA lev­els. Phys­i­cal Ther­a­pists are ac­tu­al­ly trained in pre­scrib­ing ex­er­cise and PA for a va­ri­ety of peo­ple with dif­fer­ent ill­ness­es.

It was said over thou­sands of years ago “Walk­ing is man’s best med­i­cine”.