Levels of Exercise

[James Marusek 5,244]

Dr. Mark Hamer from Loughborough University, Loughborough, England and colleagues combined data on physical activity from iterations of the Heath Survey for England and the Scottish Health Survey which were obtained between 1994 and 2012. The data in the present study came from 63,500 participants who were aged 40 or more, 46 percent of whom were male.

The goal of this study was to look at how the level of physical activity compared with mortality rates.

Essentially they broke the data into four groups:

Inactive at baseline — 63 percent
Insufficiently active — 22 percent
Weekend warriors — 4 percent (about one-half took part in one, and one-half in two exercise sessions weekly)
Regularly active — 11 percent.

Then they compared the bottom 3 groups with the inactive at baseline.

There conclusions were "The present study suggests that less frequent bouts of activity, which might be more easily fit into a busy lifestyle, offer considerable health benefits, even in the obese and those with major risk factors. A particularly encouraging finding was that a physical activity frequency as low as 1 or 2 sessions per week was associated with lower mortality risks, even in the insufficiently active."

So it is extremely important to get some physical exercise even if this is minimal because it can dramatically decrease your risk of dying early. This reduction is in the order of 30% to 35%.

[On the upside, this analysis had a large sample size - 63,500 participants. On the downside, this analysis was based on self reporting. Another weakness in the study was that the Individuals in the inactive group tended to be older and were more likely to be smokers, to be in unskilled occupations, and to report long-standing illnesses. But they did adjusted their analyses for factors such as smoking which could also affect the outcomes. So it is a little like a mixed bag.]

http://acsh.org/news/2017/03/08/you-dont-have-run-marathons-benefit-physical-activity-10957

[hmills653 365]

Also there are fun ways to get your exercise in. Every summer my family goes kayaking, like the whole extended family lol. Some of us girls at work are looking into taking dance classes together (I can't dance), but I know it'll be fun. My mom has a pool with special foam weights and Water exercises are easy on the joints and the resistance of the water is more effective in walking.