Moderate Exercise Can’t Help Those Who Are Sedentary

For most of us, an answer to the question, how important is exercise, is quite obvious. In our times of sedentary lifestyle and constant lack of physical activities, the importance of exercising for health and being fit is turning into something essential for every modern person. Many studies have shown that even moderate exercise (i.e. doing just 30-40 minutes of cardio or power workouts 3-4 times a week) can be very effective for being in good physical health and living a stress-free life. Keeping muscles toned and in shape is the best and the most effective way to a proper metabolism, maintaining normal body mass, reducing the risks of many serious diseases, including cardiovascular and cancer, etc. Exercising on a regular basis is the best way to a healthier and happier life for us all.

However, more and more scientists express their concern about sedentary life style and its negative effects on our life and health. A year ago, experts from the University of Queensland, Australia, published the findings of their study, saying that moderate exercise can not be enough to compensate destructive effects of chronic inactivity on health of modern people. Detailed report can be seen in one of the issues of European Heart Journal dated January 2011.  Recently, a group of Finnish experts came out with the same kind of conclusions. According to their findings published this spring in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, even regular moderate exercise in sedentary people may not be a solution, even in a long-term perspective.

A team of Finnish experts led by T. Finni and P. Haakana, specialists from biology department of the University of Jyväskylä, carried out  a short experiment. The participants invited for this study were formed into a group of people without health problems, both men and women, both adults and the aged. The main objective of the scientists was evaluating the condition of muscles, in sedentary style and in active routine. In the first day of the experiment, the participants were offered doing plenty of physical activities, and the workouts lasted from 30 to 150 minutes. Those were the most common physical activities we all do in the framework of our individual program of exercising for health. The other day, all the participants spent in none of physical activities, imitating our usual sedentary lifestyle routine.

It turned out that regardless of the amount of exercise in the first day, muscles of all the participants remained inactive for over 70 per cent of the day, thus giving not much of a difference between the day of moderate exercise and the day of doing none of exercise. This study gives us a chance to look at the question how important is exercise for health in a different perspective. Seeing that moderate daily exercise can be not enough, Finnish scientists recommend to all modern people do everything possible simply to increase the amount of activities in their daily routines, in order to remain healthy for many years. In other words, we need to try to keep away from sedentary lifestyle no matter what and avoid prolonged muscle inactivity .

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

Comments are closed.