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Everything Is Relative When It Comes to Exercise
Everything is relative when it comes to exercise – especially for older people. A new study from Harvard University just published in the journal Circulation reports that older men who felt their workouts were challenging lowered their risk of heart disease regardless of whether they exercised enough to meet current guidelines on physical activity.
The results suggest that the intensity of exercise needed to reduce one's risk of heart disease may be relative to an individual's fitness level. Therefore, the harder one exercises, based on their perception, even if the activity does not fall into the current recommended range, the lower the risk.
Current Australian guidelines recommed 30 minutes of “moderate” activity most, preferably all days of the week. Although technically moderate activity is defined as physical activity involving energy expenditure of three to six times the resting metabolic rate, this latest study shows the benefits from activitiy are relative to the actual fitness levels of the individual.
For inactive people this means that doing a little bit of challenging activity – challanging as defined by their own capacity – has a health protective effect. Walking, for example, is ideally done at a brisk level to maximise the benefits. Brisk, however, is defined by the perceptions of the walker him, or herself, and will change as the body responds to even low levels of activity by becoming fitter.
Although the latest research makes a case for defining moderate activity relative to the individual perception, people should plan to work towards some regular bout of more taxing activity as the body responds to use. There still is tremendous benefits to be had from vigorous exercise, but people should gradually work towards their own ideal level of activity.
Article by Professor Kerry Mummery
Central Queensland University
