Physical Activity vs Physical Exercise
We are not active as part of a daily necessity, but it is a necessity for living a sustainable healthy life. Overfeeding and under working our bodies lead to lowered bone density, lowered muscle density, and increased body fat, not just under our skin, but in our systems. The enjoyment of a long-term healthy life requires cardiovascular fitness and stable functional movements, in other words physical activity. It is easier to make this happen if it becomes part of a routine. I can understand that this can feel difficult, a chore at first but can also become a great satisfaction over time.
The concept of physical EXERCISE has been created as it replaces physical activity, what the body was evolved to do. It is not difficult to start being more physically active. Physical activity opportunities are all around. You just need the tools and know-how to use them. With being regularly physically active you should be able to prevent injury to the body caused by a sudden stress of which the body is not used to. A basic movement used in daily living, something like standing up or reaching above our heads, may become an unintentionally imbalanced or highly exerted movement leading to an injury. Simply put, if a sudden stress is too big injury can occur, anything from muscle tear to heart attack.
At the same time if the stress is too little, the body would not know that it must change. Through a variety of appropriate physical activity, you could offer small stresses with a lower risk of injury allowing the body to acknowledge it must change something… increase bone and muscle density, develop stable functional movements, and with all this improved cardiovascular fitness.
Through active living you can add a variety of physical activity to your daily routine for a complete body fitness; popular ones include swimming, cycling, walking (or running), and the occasional series of functional exercises spread throughout the weeks. Swimming for instance can help develop the “above our head movements” while cycling can help with developing our ability to “stand up.” Both will help us with developing our cardiovascular fitness.
As part of our daily routine we already have sleeping, eating breakfast… we should look at what we need to do to make up the bits included in active living. Let’s start with time spent doing things.