General information on exercise
If you’re looking to lose weight, boost your brain power or simply improve your health, it’s important that you engage in some form of regular exercise. But despite the evident physical and mental health benefits of regular exercise, many people across the world instead choose to lead inactive lifestyles. You may think that you’re already doing regular exercise, but are you doing enough for it to count?
How much exercise should I be doing?
Official NHS guidelines suggest that adults should try to be active every day and should break up long periods of inactivity with some form of exercise. The guidelines also state that we should aim to achieve at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise per week. This should be achieved through performing a variety of activities.
What is the difference between the types of exercise?
Moderate intensity activity is when you are moving quickly enough to raise your heart rate, so that you are breathing faster and feel warmer. Such activities include brisk walking, bike riding, dancing, hiking, roller blading, lawn mowing, and water aerobics. Believe it or not, sex, is also considered exercise.
An activity is counted as vigorous if it increases your heart rate significantly and causes you to breathe very hard and fast as a result. Such activities include: running, football, netball, skipping, gymnastics, and even walking up the stairs.
Finally, activities that are classified as being highly vigorous include: HIIT training, lifting heavy weights, and spinning classes. It is recommended that you include a mixture of all intensities if you hope to reap the physical benefits of regular exercise.
Benefits of exercise include:
- Aids Weight Management
- Improves Cardiovascular Health
- Helps to Prevent and Manage Health Problems
- Improves Mental Health
- Improves Brain Power
- Promotes Better Sleep
- Boosts Energy
- Good for Muscles, Bones and Joints
- Helps Skin Health
- Reduces Chronic Pain
- Improves Balance