Did you know the government gave us guidelines for physical activity? You can see the guidelines below. But first the results...
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers have said that just over 20% of U.S. adults get as much aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise as government guidelines recommended. Carmen Harris, MPH, and colleagues at the CDC found in data from a large Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey in 2011, with about 450,000 respondents, that only 20.6% of respondents indicated that their non-occupational physical activity reached levels recommended in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans issued by the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services."
These findings are spot on with my "official" gym statistic that less than 20% of members use the gym on a regular basis.
But there is a silver lining. The survey shows half reported enough cardio exercise and about 30% reached the required amount of strength training.
Here are the guidelines:
Cardiovascular: at least 150 minutes per week at a moderate-intensity OR 75 minutes per week at a vigorous intensity.
Strength: at least 2 episodes of strength training per week.
Men were more likely than women to meet these goals. And the percentages also dropped with increasing age.
So how do YOU stack up to the guidelines?
Are you meeting them, below or above them?
- 119 -
That's the amount of hours you have in a given week (assuming you sleep 7 hours a night - which is pretty generous).
If you meet these exercise guidelines, you're spending 3% of your waking hours toward exercise. Add in a health magazine, eating some veggies, and taking the stairs and you'd be hard pressed to get up to 10% of your time toward your health.
It's not much.
So here's the loaded question... If you desire to lose weight, to get in shape, to just feel a little better, are you putting enough effort toward making that actually happen?
Only you can answer.
I could tell you if you're on track or not. But only you can answer it.
And only you can change it!
If you want to make a significant change in your health, your fitness, or your weight, I encourage you to do some math.
The government says you need about 3.5 hours of exercise every week. You have about 119 hours to work with. Find a way to make it happen. Certainly you can find some TV or other leisure activity to cut from your life. Or maybe even some sleep. I guess it all depends on what's really important to you.
To your success,
Tim Chudy
Fitness together
If you'd like to talk about how much and what type of exercise you should be doing to reach your goals, please give me a call, 314.909.9565. I'd love to help you.
