Less exercise needed than previously recommended, Canadian research shows

Less exercise may be more.

Based on new research, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and ParticipAction are recommending lowering the minimum requirements for children.

The research, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, says children aged 5 to 17 should undertake “moderate” exercise for at least 60 minutes a day, but if they are particularly inactive they can get away with as little as 30 minutes.

The logic is that it doesn’t take a lot of exercise to show improvements in an unfit body.

It’s recommended that adults aged 18 to 65 get 150 minutes of “moderate” exercise or 90 minutes of “vigorous” exercise per week.

The research was published on May 11 in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

The Canadian government’s existing exercise recommendations are 90 minutes a day for children and 30 to 60 minutes a day for adults.

Canada’s Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living was first published in 1998.

Comments

1 Comments

Aaron

May 14, 2010 at 4:20am

What’s the point of setting new exercise guidelines if you don’t support them up with initiatives to convert those guidelines into actual physical activity?

.

We already know that we “should” exercise
We already know that we “should” eat healthier
We already know that we’re fatter than ever
We already know that our kids are fatter than ever
We already know that we should reduce stress, sleep 8 hours, take our vitamins”¦
We already know this stuff

What we need is:

Legislation & funding to re-introduce phys-ed classes into our schools
A re-organization of gov’t food subsidies to improve our food supply
A non-partisan discussion about applying “sin” taxes to junk food
Marketing campaigns designed to promote a healthy lifestyle
Tax credits designed to reward individual behaviors that promote health, prevent disease and reduce healthcare costs
Tax credits for community fitness groups