1.4 Billion Adults Are At Risk Because of This
Earlier this afternoon my body was letting me know that my under active weekend was starting to take its toll. Between the 5+ hours in the car yesterday, the standing around at my sons soccer game, and the 3 days away from the gym, I was definitely feeling the effects of my inactivity.
You probably know what that feels like.
Your muscles feel stiff, your energy feels sluggish, and your brain feels less focused. I hate feeling like that.
I knew I had to do something, so after church I walked to the gym, and I did a bunch of activation exercises, some mobility work, some cardio, and some resistance training. This all felt amazing. I even got in two games of basketball (and won both, woot-woot!).
Now I feel like I’m back to being myself again.
With all the amazing physical and mental benefits that I get from even small amounts of exercise, I find it difficult to understand why so many people choose not to do it. Do they not know how good it is for them? Do they not know how much better they will feel right away?
I wish I had the answers.
What got me thinking about this today was an article about the latest statistics on inactivity across the world. Researchers studied the activity habits of 1.9 million people in 168 countries and they found that 27.5% of adults didn’t get the minimum requirement for physical activity (150 minutes per week of moderate activity, like brisk walking).
This indicates that there are roughly 1.4 billion adults in the world who would be considered under active.
What’s even worse is that for high income western nations (like ours) the numbers are even higher- 36.8%!
That’s so sad to me because even getting just the minimum recommended amount has been shown to significantly reduce the likelihood of developing nearly every disease.
When I think of all the human suffering that could be reduced by people just being more active, I ponder how I could get more people to do it. I guess writing an article like this is a start.
Speaking of articles, the one that I was reading was retrieved from a website called www.Mercola.com. If you don’t know the site, I suggest you bookmark it.
ANYTIME you have a question about a food, an exercise, a disease, a supplement or any other health related topic, I suggest you search this site. It is a fantastic resource for those like us, who value our health and want to work to preserve it.
This article not only explains the research on inactivity but it also contains
-A video of a 4 minute exercise routine that can give you many of the same benefits of an hour of traditional exercise
-A short article on the dangers of sitting
-8 easy ways you can get more movement into your day
and more..
Check it out here- Exercise Article
Enjoy! Please pass along to your loved ones!
Chris
P.S. Sometimes pain from ailments that won’t heal limits our movement and our activity. Those that have experienced this know it’s a vicious cycle. The pain limits the activity, and the limited activity causes weakening. The weakening then makes activity even more painful, which leads to more inactivity and further weakening.
For many people this just goes on and on. Sometimes for years.
Mike Robles was in a similar situation several years ago. An ankle problem forced him to walk on crutches for months. This significantly reduced his activity.
Being that he was a Tampa Firefighter, he was willing to do anything because his career depended on his recovery,
He made the 1 hour drive to come and see me, and by the grace of God, within 20 minutes he was not just walking, but running. Pain free. (That’s not typical by the way).
Mike eventually got fully healed and went back to work, but the story doesn’t end there.
As he shared in his recent Facebook review, this experience inspired him to go through the training to do the same type of work as me. Now, after several years of very hard work and travel, he has the level 1 training completed. Even just with this level of training, Mike is already able to help people with similar issues. How cool is that!?
Read his story by clicking here- Mike’s Story
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