C. Mia and I first began our health transformation with this thinking: Being Physically active was enough to keep healthy. We believed we were getting our daily exercise by doing our daily chores, in and out of the house doing errands, and enjoying a walk with the kids or the dog. C.Mia would have her weekly tennis, while I had my weekly yoga class. We thought that was enough. However, as we experienced and learned through our own transformation, exercise is a form of physical activity, but being physically active may not mean getting exercise. It depends on the level of intensity.
Physically Active vs. Exercise, what’s the diff?
According to the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association, the following are definitions of physical activity and exercise respectively:
- Physical activity is any movement that is carried out by the muscles that require energy. In other words, it is any movement a person does that includes unstructured movement throughout the day. Examples: gardening/walking in the mall/ house chores
- Exercise is, by definition, planned, structured, repetitive, and intentional movement. Exercise is also intended to improve or maintain physical fitness. It is designed to increase your heart rate or work your muscles for a specified period of time. Examples: running, tennis, cardio dance, HIIT.
Annie Simoneaux, CIS Exercise Physiologist of Cardiovascular Institute of the South, further explains:
image by Unsplash.com
The key thing to focus on when trying to determine if something is just physical activity or exercise is to ask ourselves a few questions:
- “Am I doing this because I’m trying to improve my physical fitness or health?”
- “Do I plan to do this consistently from week to week or even day to day?”
If the answer to both or one of these questions is no, then the activity probably cannot be considered exercise, and is truly physical activity. While if you answered yes to both, then it is most likely considered as exercise.
Are there benefits of being Physically Active?
image from Unsplash.com
Of course, there’s still health benefit from being physically active — it’s a non-sedentary behavior. An article by awarded fitness coach Cathe Friedrich put it plainly:
What’s clear is ALL physical activity provides health benefits because it’s non-sedentary behavior- and being sedentary is an independent risk factor for health problems. … The bad news is studies show that sedentary behaviors make up about 55% of the activities the typical American does each day. This almost certainly plays a role in the growing epidemic of obesity. Another study showed obese men and women spend, on average, an additional 2 hours of sitting daily that thin people do not.
Sedentary behavior impacts insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic health. Movement helps keep things under control. After all, our bodies are meant to move. It was mentioned in the same article that watching TV, another sedentary behavior is linked with higher blood pressure, glucose, and triglycerides, as well as larger waist circumference in women. So, simply being physically active improves metabolic health and reduces the risk of weight gain.
But are there downsides of just being Physically Active?
The downside of daily physical activity is that it doesn’t reach an intensity that causes the heart rate to increase and cause it to adapt. Most don’t help with cardiovascular fitness, only because it isn’t maintained at a pace and particular intensity.
Muscles and bones also become an issue, especially as we get older. Women especially lose muscle mass and muscle strength after the age of 30. We believe the best way to slow this is to do strength training. We may be highly active throughout the busy day, but unless we train with weight-bearing exercises, our muscles won’t be forced to adapt. This means that, over time, we will lose muscle and bone mass at a faster rate than someone who engages in resistance training. Not only that, but muscle mass also gets replaced with FAT Mass.
Furthermore, muscles and ligaments only strengthen when they are used, strained (through weight-bearing), and repaired. Our metabolism increases when muscles repair themselves and fat gets burned. So for a woman who does weights training/ resistance training exercises regularly, her metabolism increases, causing better hormone balance, less risk of weak bones, and better weight management that leads to fat loss.
So which is more important?
You may ask: Which is more important? It really isn’t “which is better than the other”. In fact, we believe they’re a partnership– they work together to keep you healthy and fit. We really are not able to sustain doing the things we physically need to do and love to do (gardening, playing outdoors with our kids, or be able to climb stairs with ease, etc), without supporting it with a structured form of exercise. We won’t be able to do our daily chores (lifting loads of laundry or grocery bags up a flight of stairs) with ease if we are not able to build and strengthen our heart, power in our muscles, bones, and ligaments. This is only achieved with regular cardio, strength training, balance, and mobility/stretch exercises. As the saying goes about our body: you’ve got to move it or lose it!
Tips on How to Be More Physically Active in your day
C.Mia and I share our own tips here:
- Take over some house chores from your household help. Clean the yard/ garden/ Load the laundry/hang the clothes to dry/ iron clothes/ sweep /mop.. you name it. Cooking is part of this too! Keeping yourself physically involved with the upkeep of your home actually boosts household help morale!
- Carry your grocery bags to the car. Instead of pushing the shopping cart to the car, do some weight lifting. This helps in core and balance too.
- Park your car further from the entrance/exit of your destination. Doing this is a good way to add steps to your step-counter.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. This is good especially for a few floors up/down, and especially good if you’re in a busy area where elevators are almost always full.
- Take 5-minute breaks away from your desk chair or sofa. Treat these breaks as a time to stretch, or do quick exercise movements to get some blood circulating. This allows for fresh oxygen into your body and brain. You’ll find yourself more focused too.
Tips on How to Structure Physical Exercise into your week
- 1 step at a time. If you’re new to Physical Exercise, select a day that you can commit to doing it. Keep to this schedule for 3 weeks. Increase to 2 days a week of physical exercise on the 4th week. Gradually increase until you’ve got 3 days a week. You want to increase that will be sustainable for you. It doesn’t need to be the same exact exercise. Tennis one day, light weights training the next, boxing the last day. It’s really up to you. What matters is that you get at least 30minutes of exercise that gets your heart rate up and sweat. Zumba and other cardio led-classes are good too!
- Try something new. We know how challenging things can be when we learn new things, but it also helps our mindset for growth. Doing something you’re meaning to try, without excuses, can be an invigorating feeling. It can also motivate you once you’ve achieved the first session. You’re body also adapts after several weeks, so finding something new helps with the plateau.
- Include Cardio, Strength, and Flexibility/Stretches into your Exercises. As mentioned earlier, these types of exercises help strengthen our heart, muscles, and ligaments.
- Strengthen your core. Your “core” muscles are the ones in your back, sides, pelvis, and buttocks. Strengthening these muscles helps improve balance and builds power. Plus it cuts down on belly fat. Do basic abs exercises like sit-ups and crunches. Basic leg exercises like leg lifts, squats, and lunges. These can reduce your risk of a bad fall and will help with other exercises and daily activities.
GoldnWarrior (GW) basic squat. Visit and subscribe to the GW YouTube videos. GoldnWarrior is the exercise arm of FYFG. C.Mia has regular videos out on basic exercise movements and other workout sessions too. Every Wednesday, C.Mia leads an online live session, 9 AM Manila/SG time. Come join us!
https://findyourfierceglobal.com/goldn-warrior-workouts/
Imagine if
Imagine if you are able to do the things you enjoy doing, like taking long walks with your loved ones, way into your senior years. Or even doing what needs to be done through the day (daily chores, etc) without any pain or soreness in joints and muscles. Would that be a kind of life you’d enjoy? Imagine what regular exercise feels like and how your body benefits from it. Doing regular physical exercise becomes worth it because you’re able to be physically active throughout your life. You age strong and well. You’ll be doing what you’re meant to do, enjoying a FIERCE life!