Move
MOVING MORE, EVERY DAY To boost your health, build more incidental movement into your day. You can get creative with how.
“P
urposeful exercise” is going for a walk or run, working out, playing a sport, or anything else where you spend a period of time deliberately increasing your physical fitness. Then there’s “incidental exercise” or “incidental movement”. This is where you’re doing a task that just happens to involve moving your body, so you’re getting some exercise along the way. A growing body of research shows that increasing incidental movement in your day can improve health and wellbeing. WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE?
In 2018, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans from the US Department of Health and Human Services was updated to say that any amount of physical activity that you accumulate during your day counts towards your total goal. Every little bit – even just a few minutes – gives you benefits. These are a few of the other relevant recent studies: • A 2017 South Korean study showed that twice-weekly gardening sessions of about 50 minutes improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and reduced inflammation and oxidative stress in women over 70. • A 2017 US study found that, in adults over 65, doing any amount of incidental exercise, such as housework, gardening,
26
DIABETES WELLNESS | Autumn 2021
and home maintenance, as well as spending a lot of time walking and standing, reduced stress levels and improved sleep quality. • A 2019 Canadian study had sedentary young adults vigorously ascend a three-flight stairwell (60 steps), three times a day, three days a week, for six weeks. At the end, their cardiorespiratory fitness had improved. • A 2020 Scandinavian study found that after incidental activity (such as climbing stairs), adolescents generally felt better and more energised. • Numerous studies have found that interrupting sustained periods of sitting down with brief repeated bouts of lightintensity walking reduces insulin demand, improves glucose uptake, and can also improve blood pressure and other indicators of health. STEPS TO FITNESS
One of the most commonly suggested ways to get incidental exercise is to avoid lifts and escalators and take the stairs instead. This is sound advice, and you can customise it. If you have the opportunity, start with one flight, once a day, and build up over time, setting yourself goals if that helps. Remember that walking down flights of stairs works different muscles from walking up and is also beneficial. You might want to use the rail to pull yourself up, with either one hand or two. That way you work your upper body, too. You can also try “interval training” – moving at a slow or
moderate pace for a time, then putting on bursts of vigorous activity. Do keep a hand on the railing if you’re worried about balance. Watch your posture and think about your knees and hips when climbing stairs. If you feel pain in these joints while climbing or are concerned about anything else, stop. Check with a medical professional before doing any more. MORE WALKING, LESS DRIVING
Wherever you’re travelling to, get off the bus a stop or two early, or park your car some distance away from where you’re going so that you walk the rest of the way. The same goes for taxis and rideshares – give them a drop-off point that is a little distance from your real destination. You can play with this concept. Psychologically, does walking at the end of a trip or at the start work better for you? Maybe, instead, you want to do the walking part first, and then hop on a bus or into a taxi and go all the way when you’re done. Or perhaps you’re always in too much of a rush to take the extra time to walk? If so, think about your schedule. Consciously build some extra time into your day for walking wherever it works best and you’re most likely to use it. CLEANING UP
All the regular housework, gardening, and household maintenance you do is good for you, and these tasks work many parts of your body at once. You could think about increasing the intensity of some of them sometimes: sweep, vacuum, scrub,
