| Activity
Activity
FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS BY BEN SCHOONOVER
H
ave you ever spent the day outside, and at the end of it thought to yourself “I feel pretty good”? Or maybe spend a long day fishing or hunting, coming home and being able to sit down relaxed and content? Lastly, have you ever been stuck at home, as many of us have during the pandemic, sedentary, and by the end of the day maybe have a more “depressing” outlook on life or how you feel? If so, that’s ok! And it’s not a coincidence. These feelings that come with associated movement and activity or lack thereof may seem like common sense to a Native, but we now know that there are physical and psychological benefits to increased activity.
For physical health, active and cooperative movement is important for developing fundamental motor skills (FMS) in school age children (5-7 years) as well as for promoting general health and fitness1. What is important to note, is that active play alone does not achieve this, but active cooperative games such as 4-way soccer, hot potato1 or even stickball do. In an analysis done on people who are sedentary, and those that had a more active lifestyle, it was found that those with the more active life style had positive health benefits while those with a sedentary life had a higher mortality risk. When people allotted less time to sedentary behavior, the reduced their mortality risk2. Active people get other health benefits too. I recent study analyzed the effects of high-intensity, sprint, and moderate-intensity continuous exercise on health. While the risk profile of the individual is the main factor in what determines outcome and effectiveness of these different types of activity, the research found definitively across the board that high intensity exercise had the biggest improvement in cardiovascular health and cardiorespiratory fitness3. Moderateintensity exercise, on the other hand, had the biggest improvement of long term glucose metabolism3 which would help prevent type 2 diabetes, as well as help regulate blood sugar in those with type 2 diabetes or those in a pre-diabetic state. For example, high intensity exercise could be something such
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A M E R I C A N I N D I A N & A L A S K A N AT I V E L I V I N G
