Exercise is healthy. That is common knowledge. But just how rigorous should that exercise be in order to really impact a person’s fitness level? And, if you sit all day at a desk, but still manage to get out and exercise, does that outweigh your six, seven, or eight hours of sedentary behavior?
Read about how intensity and number of steps impact your fitness levels. Even if you have a desk job, you can still be fit and healthy, especially if you exercise more intensely.
How to Get Fit
If you have a job that requires you to be in front of a computer most of the day or if you just have fallen into the habit of sitting, you may be wondering how to gain or regain physical fitness.
A recent study by Matthew Nayor and his team at Boston University School of Medicine explored that question. They found that exercising more intensely (moderate to vigorous exercise) is much more effective for improving a person’s fitness compared to milder forms of exercise, like walking 10,000 steps over the course of a day. Adding in more vigorous exercise gets you fitter faster and counterbalances sitting all day.
High step counts also mean better health and fitness, so walking is still important, especially for older people or for people who may have health conditions that keep them from more vigorous exercise.
However, if you want to get fitter or stay fit for longer, exercise at a moderate to vigorous level. It is over three times more efficient than walking at a slower pace.
Moderate v. Vigorous Exercise
Working out at a moderate or vigorous intensity has more health benefits and helps you build and maintain your fitness. How do you know what intensity of exercise your workouts fit into? Check out this breakdown:
- Low-level activity is 60-99 steps/minute – this would be the rate that the average person walks around their house, workplace, or yard during the course of the day.
- Moderate activity is 100-129 steps/minute – To reach this level of exertion, you must walk briskly enough to raise your heart rate, though conversation is still possible.
- Vigorous activity would be higher than 130 steps/minute. Jogging or running is considered vigorous activity, which raises your heart rate significantly and makes conversation difficult.
How to Choose Your Exercise Level
- Exercising more intensely leads to better fitness and health results. That’s not a surprise. However, it also helps with lower intensity exercise, as well.
- More steps and less time sitting equals greater levels of fitness. This is true regardless of age, sex, and health status. This means that if you can’t exercise more intensely, putting in steps and time exercising still pays off.
- Moderate to vigorous physical activity and more steps than average led to higher physical fitness, even in those who sat for long periods of the day. Being physically active can offset the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
- Putting in the work to reach physical fitness can pay off for years. Research shows that even eight years after high activity levels, you can reap the rewards. Exercising is worth it for today and for the years ahead.
References:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6029645/
Boston University
