NHS Exercise advice

[Ryeman]

I’ve always been fairly fit and into sport. In the last couple of years I’ve started a pretty intense exercise class and a few months ago upped it from once to twice a week. I also play a sport 1-2 times a week. I feel like this is probably more than ‘most’ people do. But some weeks I’m only just reaching the recommended NHS amount of exercise: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults-aged-19-to-64/
I don’t really know what my AIBU is here but it seems like the recommended amount is fairly unachievable for a lot of people - in fact I’m pretty sure a large proportion of adults do approximately zero intense exercise. It’s so important for our health as we age, particularly bone health for women, balance and strength. As well as mental health benefits. Should there be more help and encouragement for people to be physically fitter vs just being in the ideal weight range?

I agree. Inactive people are extremely weak, but it's not surprising.

I fractured a bone 2 years ago and had to have my arm in a sling for 6 weeks, and the muscle wastage was huge. It has taken me a long time to regain strength in that shoulder (I'm over 40), and it's still a work in progress.

Yes! I often remind myself that my 75 year old self will be thankful that I am putting the effort into developing my strength and mobility now.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable. But I absolutely recognise it can be difficult. And it can be so hard to have the energy to do it. I’m very overweight since having DS and have started prioritising my health and fitness again. I have a 2 year old with no support from family nearby, just me and DH. We both work full time. We rotate drop offs and picks up so I can go to bootcamp (variation of HIIT and strength training) twice a week for an hour a time. I also run once a week. If I fancy it and have time I might do another one on the weekend, but I aim to get all my workouts done during the week so weekend is family time. If I can walk somewhere over driving I will. On a Sunday afternoon we choose somewhere to go for a nice long walk as a family, I put something in the slow cooker so it’s ready for when we get back. We take DS in buggy so we both get a good walk in and are not going at snail pace stopping to look at every leaf and stick. He gets the play park at the end.

Do we have weeks where DH is stuck in traffic so I have to do his pick up and so miss bootcamp? Or one of us has a work trip so the routine goes out the window? Yes. Do I have weeks where I drive instead of walk because the weather is awful? Also yes. I also have weeks where I overdo it at bootcamp and physically can’t do the second class I hurt that much 😂. I draw a line under it and move on. My weekly routine is so crammed that if I miss a workout for something outside of my control I don’t feel guilty and I don’t stress myself out by trying to fit it in on another day as inevitably then something else won’t get done.

Always interesting reading pre 1960s stuff, like Christie, and the obsession with bed rest. Miss Marple being told to stop gardening and stop roaming about the village and stop doing this and stop doing that. These days, the doctor would be applauding all the mental and physical stimulation she’s providing for herself! Of course, that was a time when the standard default involved significantly more exercise than people get today - perhaps some people did rather overdo it!

In the Twitter thead I mentioned above, about the Dutch housing estate where active travel was factored in, so many posters seemed obsessed with sweeping entire demographics of people into the “disabled” bracket - so anyone who had had a child, was pregnant or over 60 was basically too disabled to walk down a short street pushing a trolley of shopping, say. The housing estate did have sensible accommodation for people who were actually disabled, but we’re not doing ourselves any favors if we start planning cities on the assumption that everyone’s disabled?

this is the reason they got a dog - but unless you're running alongside, it's generally a fairly sedate walk.

Please would someone tell my dog that?

Yes. Unless you have a nuts dog like a husky or weimaraner it's not much of heart rate raiser. I love dogs but I like walking quickly, not sniffing lampposts.

Rather like using Pokemon to get active, we tried it once and did fewer steps. It was such a dawdle having to keep stopping every so often.

I don't find it hard to do 10,000 steps plus a day (4-5 miles at my stride length), and I do two weights sessions a week a yoga class and a cardio session. Plus a run if I can fit it in (I'm rather a fair weather runner). But then I read articles that say it doesn't matter how much exercise you do if you sit down for 7 hours a day in your job, that you can't out exercise all that sitting. Even though I do 4-5 hours a week (so more like twice the recommendation) of pretty vigorous exercise and a lot of hours of gentle exercise.

Very discouraging! For me though there is a huge difference in how I feel if I don't exercise regularly and I love feeling fit and healthy.

The real issue is that most people now leave their house and get straight into a car to go where ever. Then park right outside. As a child very few houses had two cars so my mother walked to the shops/school run/bus stop etc. That would have been 10k steps a day before adding in the housework and gardening.

The equivalent mother today will be in a hurry to drop off at nursery/school, drive to work probably spend the day in a sedentary occupation, drive to pick up the children, cook dinner and slump exhausted on the sofa.

People may not make the guidelines for al sorts of reasons but a systemic look at how we could rearrange working and commuting norms to incorporate walking and cycling into most people's lifestyles would be helpful.

It's just completely multifactorial why someone might not hit exercise guidelines. A tiny proportion will probably just be unmotivated "lazy", but there really are valid reasons why it can be difficult to get exercise in.

I think what would really help is subsidised access to gym facilities with good quality crèches, flexible work schedules wherever possible, family GPs with enough time to discuss exercise regimes and monitor progress, proper access to physios and exercise specialists when needed (I spent many years not exercising because it hurt until I was told by a physio what was concerning pain and what wasn't), proper and inclusive physical education, and generally better support systems for all different kinds of families (such as those with disabled children).

I think what you are proposing is unrealistic, @BackForABit. And even if such facilities were available, the people who currently 'don't have time' and/or are 'too tired', et cetera still wouldn't make use of them.

It primarily takes a change of mindset, a commitment to do the things that will enhance our health and fitness - and the rest will follow. I find YouTube a terrific resource - I've not set foot in a gym for many years. So many workouts to choose from....... it can be a bit overwhelming, but the following are really good:

• Beginners/easy: Lucy Wyndham Read
• Beginners/Intermediate/stretching: Livingleggings
• Beginners/a bit more energetic, including use of dumbbells: Rebecca Louise
• Intermediates/longer pilates inspired workouts: Heather Robertson, Sydney Cummings, Jake duPree, Popsugar Fitness......
• HIIT/Cardio (plus some dumbellworkouts): Growingannanas
• To strengthen the core/planks!!!: Bowflex 3-minute plank, Caroline Girvan Braced Core & Abs
• Weight training - so important!!!!!!!: anything by Caroline Girvan; she is the absolute best - start with 3-5kg dumbbells and you'll never look back.

I used to walk to and from work - half an hour each way - four days a week in the summer, in the winter I'd walk there and get the bus home as it was dark and the way home includes fairly isolated and unlit footpaths. So it was easy to fit activity in. I'd usually walk around town on my lunch break as well.

Rarely do anything now - I don't have lunch breaks so I can finish earlier to look after DS who's autistic, bedtime routine takes hours and he needs me to stay with him, plus he often wakes in the night. I know I need to move more, but I'm bloody exhausted all the time.

This.

Disabilities aside, it’s not time, it’s priorities. Get off the sofa/your phone and move, stop whining about how tired you are!

@PaminaMozart it is unrealistic at the moment but it would potentially cost less in the long term with preventative approach?

I don't know for sure if the too tired people would make use of it, guess that's about individual belief in fundamental nature of humans 😅

Exercise is an act of self-love.

An unhealthy lifestyle is the opposite - self harm.

If you take the mindset above, it becomes easier.

(arthritis sufferer in feet, knees, spine and hands)
“I love myself and my family enough to give myself the gift of exercise.” This mindset gets me through the workout.

It's just completely multifactorial why someone might not hit exercise guidelines. A tiny proportion will probably just be unmotivated "lazy", but there really are valid reasons why it can be difficult to get exercise in.

I think you're being a bit generous here - the vast majority of people could do more, they just can't be bothered. I see so many people get in their cars and drive 2-3 streets to school or work. They get a taxi home from the station instead of walking 15 minutes. They come home from work and sit on the sofa, eat junk and watch TV instead of doing an exercise video or cooking something healthy.

Yes, there are a few people who are genuinely too busy and who genuinely have health issues that mean they can't walk to the shops, but how many people come home from work and just sit on the sofa all evening? How many spend their weekends driving to the shops or to sit in the cinema instead of to do something active? A lot.

It's just completely multifactorial why someone might not hit exercise guidelines. A tiny proportion will probably just be unmotivated "lazy", but there really are valid reasons why it can be difficult to get exercise in.

I also don't think that it's a tiny proportion but rather the majority of cases. Most people could easily do more by walking more, taking the stairs instead of escalators, by doing a couple of 15 mins workouts during the day etc

That sounds nice, but local governments can’t even fix roads or empty bins, let alone provide subsidized gyms with childcare. No guarantee that the gyms would even get used, after all the outlays had been made. The problem with exercise that is artificially bolted onto the end of one’s day is that people don’t actually do it.

Realistically, we would be better off shifting cities towards more active travel usage, which enables people to fit exercise into their daily routines in a relatively time efficient and cheap way, and in a way that the person can’t just wriggle out of whenever they feel tired or not in the mood. It has economic benefits as well (because when cities do not have to allocate huge amounts of land for roads and parking, they can use the space for more and denser housing, or more economic activity).

Yeah true, but equally being a young parent carer I see an almost exact split in lifestyles between my two groups of friends...

All the friends without disabled kids (mostly without kids as well tbh), are slim, have active hobbies, one swims every day, they cycle to work, they (generally) cook from scratch. Nearly all of my friends with disabled kids are much lower socioeconomic status, much fatter (particularly the mums), no formal exercise, use of ready meals / junk food. I mean it's an extreme and specific example but I'd like to think that people do "well" when they can.

I think what would really help is subsidised access to gym facilities with good quality crèches

But it's much easier and cheaper to just exercise at home while your baby is napping or playing?

Maybe when my babies were under 9 months, after that I had no chance.

I tried to do some yoga today with my junior school aged child (learning disabilities, no school place) and gave up after he kept clambering onto my back 😑 Although maybe I should have used it as a strength training opportunity 😅

Previous generations didn't go to the gym, or run, or lift. DM never did a days exercise in her life, but lived until 92. Pretty healthy, very supple and flexible well into her 80's. She didn't drive though, so walked everywhere in her younger days, in high heeled shoes, carrying shopping and herding four children. I think it is doable with just day to day living tbh, so long as you do something other than sit every day.

I mean it's an extreme and specific example but I'd like to think that people do "well" when they can.

I'm really not convinced. There are lots of people who absolutely can do more, but they just like watching TV and eating chocolate more than they do going for a run or to the gym.

I do agree that there are some people who struggle due to their health or circumstances, but IMO the vast, vast majority of people are unfit because they drive everywhere, sit at a desk all day and then go home and sit on a sofa all evening.

When you have a sedentary lifestyle, you have to make the effort to build exercise into your daily life - as PP have said, it wasn't an issue 50 years ago as we all walked everywhere and nobody got in a car to drive 10 minutes down the road.