Adults are said to be sedentary if they engage in less than 2.5h of physical activity per week or less than 1.25h of intensive exercise per week. So what counts as physical activity and what counts as sport, and why is getting enough exercise so important?
The boundaries are certainly fluid here. But roughly speaking, activities that leave you slightly out of breath but not sweating are considered medium-intensity physical activity. High intensity sports or exercise is when you are both out of breath and sweating.
Brisk walking or cycling count as moderate-intensity activities. For example, a long bike ride or jog would count as exercise. But these classifications should be taken with caution, because they are very individual and also depend on how trained you are.
Tip: Pay attention to how often you get out of breath and how often and how long you really do high intensity exercise per week.
In addition to the risk of weight gain as a result of decreased energy needs, lack of exercise has similar effects on our health as smoking. So if you don’t exercise enough, you’re harming your body in the long run.
Besides, our body needs load to maintain the bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Unfortunately, sport cannot build up a “health depot”. If you did regular endurance training when you were 30, you won’t get anything out of it when you’re 50 if you don’t keep at it. So it’s important to adopt healthy habits and get regular, adequate and varied exercise.
By the way, it’s never too late to incorporate more exercise into your daily routine. Even small steps in the right direction have great benefits for health and well-being.
Regular exercise can protect us from diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, colon and breast cancer, etc. In addition, sports and exercise have a positive effect on mood and mind. Thinking performance improves and our self-esteem and stress tolerance increase.
It has been shown that physically active people live longer and better and are more autonomous, mobile and mentally fit than their inactive peers. So exercise is an investment in your long-term but also short-term health.
Source: https://www.hepa.ch/de/bewegungsempfehlungen.html#ui-collapse-248