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Health & Fitness

Can Exercising Two Percent of Your Week Save Your Life?

Want to see a different view on how very minimal physical activity can do for you? Take a look at some of numbers and the outrageous outcomes that people have by using less then 2% of their week.

What is a very large common goal for almost every single person on the face of the earth, nowadays? If you’re a cartoon and have the name Stewie, you might not share this common goal, but this goal, to me at least, is Quality of life.

Everywhere we look or listen nowadays, we hear how important health and activity is to everyone’s well-being. The General Health Standings seem to change so quickly on what’s good for you, and what’s bad for you, but never tell anyone WHY they have to follow these physical activity guidelines set by the Surgeon General. 

I know growing up, and even now, I have tuned the public announcements (although they are getting more creative) out in my head.  How boring can some of these radio ads be? That all being said, I want to share studies (yes studies, but please read-on) that were performed that involved one hour sessions of LIGHT exercise three times per week (walking included, by the way). Bear with me for just a minute and take a look at WHY, simple improvements such as short walks at night with your partner, or walking your dog could, actually, save your life (in the long run). 

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We all know that smoking = bad, sitting all day = bad and so on. Dr. Mike Evans put together a presentation that shed light on things that will soon dazzle you on how much of an impact just one single hour, three times per week can actually help every day normal health issues. First let’s put that in perspective.

  • There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days per week, making that 168 hours each week. This was performed with 1.7% of a total week’s time with light activity (including just plain old walking).
  • Knee arthritis went down 47%.
  • Anyone in your family or someone you know have Dementia or Alzheimer’s? The same dose of exercise reduced progression of the above listed by 50%.
  • Reduction of diabetes by 58% was also prevalent in this study. 
  • 41% of post menopausal women reduced their risk of hip fractures with light exercise only 4 hours per week. 
  • I know I am an anxious person, maybe you may be as well, and this same dose of less than 2% of your week simply getting up and walking at a light activity level reduced anxiety in a medical study by 48%! 
  • Depression along the same lines of physical activity reduced Depression by 30%, and by upping the time of physical activity, reduced depression by upwards of 47%. 

I know that this is a lot of numbers and I told myself I would make this blog interesting, but here is the most interesting fact I discovered about overall general health.

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In a study tracking 10,000 Harvard Alumni, for over 12 years, those who participated in the recommended  “dose” of physical activity at three times per week had a 23% lower risk of death then compared to those who did not follow the very simple program.  2% of your week, that’s all it takes to reduce these factors in such a massive way by simply getting off the couch, after you finish reading my Blog of course! 

Tired throughout the day, yeah? Me too! Guess what also happens to be the number one treatment of fatigue? Yeah! You got it! See, it’s that simple. When it comes down to it, 30 minutes to an hour out of your day being physically active can literally change your entire life. 

The last eye-opening question that I will leave you with for this week’s Blog… Dr. Steven Blair conducted a study that followed over 50,000 people of all different backgrounds and cultures.  His study was called “Aerobic Centre Longitudinal Study” and he wanted to find out the one thing that can be explained as the estimated number of deaths in a population that would have been avoided if a certain “risk factor” had been erased. His factors included Diabetes, Cholesterol, Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), Smoking, Obesity, and CRF (Low levels of physical fitness).  The Strongest predictor of Death, yes, was “Low Fitness” or CRF (Cardio Respiratory Fitness).

If you got it right, then you may understand the importance of what less than 2% of your week can do for you.

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