Benefits of Joyful Movement

Why exercise and any sort of movement is known to benefit your physical health, research has begun to suggest that it also benefits your mental, emotional, and social health too.

Benefits of Exercise

Physical Benefits:

- Aids weight loss

- Boosts energy levels

- Reduces risk of;

· Coronary Heart Disease & Cardiovascular Disease

· Type 2 Diabetes

· Cancers (bowel & breast)

· Osteoporosis

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Mental Wellbeing/Emotional Benefits

- Helps reduce stress.

- Reduce the risk of depression – regular physical activity can aid this.

- Improve self esteem and help you meet your goals.

- Improves mental wellbeing i.e., including factors such as developing potential, working productively and creatively, building strong and positive relationships with others, and contributing to community.

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Social Benefits

- Connect with people – can help you connect with others through team activities

*It is important to note that physical activity is not beneficial for everyone’s mental health i.e., those with an eating disorder or an overtraining addiction can have negative effect as a result.

Type of Exercise

Aerobic – intense activities, maintained for long enough to improve one’s cardiovascular fitness i.e., it would be difficult to talk when doing one of these activities – walking, jogging, cycling etc.

Muscle/Strength Training – resistance exercise that maintain or build muscle strength i.e., weightlifting, Pilates etc.

Flexibility Training – Stretching/lengthening skeletal muscle – used to increase elasticity and range e.g., yoga.

Balance Training – Important with ageing – activities aim to throw one off balance to improve stability e.g., standing on one foot etc.

Sedentary lifestyles i.e., those with little movement/exercise are linked to poorer health and are often described as the silent killer.

It is recommended that adults partake in 150-300 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise and at least 2 days of muscle strengthening exercises per week.

*Strength exercises are important with age to prevent sarcopenia.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30414822/

https://www.fsem.ac.uk/position_statement/the-role-of-physical-activity-and-sport-in-mental-health/

Activity Trackers

· As of 2020 approximately 21% of American adults stated that they regular wore a smart watch or wearable fitness tracker.

· While Fitbit used to own a large proportion of the market share, the market has been predominately controlled by Apple since the initial release of the Apple watch in 2015.

· Furthermore, those that don’t own an activity tracker or more than likely still having their activity tracked through built in apps such as the ‘Health’ app on iPhone, or downloadable apps such as MyFitnessPal, Strava etc.

How Reliable are Trackers

o Most activity trackers are pedometers or accelerometers (i.e., they track steps accurately), however most of the other data they provide are estimates based on calculations that consider your individual weight height and age.

o Heart rate tracking was also found to be relatively accurate in lab settings. https://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/9/e18694

o Lower validity for energy expenditure and sleep has also been shown. https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-015-0314-1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1532046419300711?via%3Dihub

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