People often wonder, “How much fitness is enough? Do I really burn any calories just going through the daily motions of life?” The answer just may surprise you: a little bit of Clarkston fitness goes a long way. Research from Queen’s University in Canada suggests that even the seemingly mild physical activity we do everyday can have positive ramifications for our health. Physical activity guidelines in the US and Canada maintain that people ages 18 to 64 should have 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week in periods of at least 10 minutes at a shot. So, in other words, if you run up a flight of stairs once, don’t think that counts toward your tally.
Canadian researchers wanted to know what happened if people didn’t perform their activities in the suggested ten minute spurts. What about the people who don’t like traditional forms of exercise? To conduct the study, they looked at 140 university-aged male and females who were considered “overweight.” Subjects wore accelerometers for one week while doing basic day-to-day activities.
Researchers concluded that the more you do of any form of physical activity, the better. If you choose to walk up two flights of stairs rather than take the escalator – that’s a good thing. Walk through the mall, dust, clean, mow the lawn. Some people argue that this “latest study” states the painfully obvious, but the fact of the matter is that this data simply didn’t exist before. Previously, only self-reported studies were analyzed, which could be easily exaggerated. The accelerometer makes the study more objective, which is helpful in its own right.
The important thing to remember is that Clarkston fitness is not going to happen by chance. Researchers find that consistency is key when it comes to exercise. While every day moving is better than being completely sedentary, more intense activity like climbing the stairs quickly will be far more beneficial than mild activity like walking to and from the bathroom. For the extremely obese, the idea of taking baby steps to get moving is an attractive one, but if people really want to lose weight or get in shape, a structured Clarkston fitness program is the only way to reach those goals. Some people feel they need to “get in shape” just to join the gym, but that is simply not true. People of all shapes and sizes buy gym memberships and the gym is not the meat market it’s made out to be. Everyone is there with the same goal in mind – to get fit and reduce risk of premature death – and no one is out to judge you.
