Physical Activity is an essential component to our health, and its benefits are clear. As much as we know this, we also understand that activity levels go up and down for lots of different reasons throughout our lives. Our role as physiotherapists is both to help people remain active through helping with injuries, but also to promote physical activity and exercise and all of the health benefits that come from it.
Physical activity and exercise can be daunting and intimidating, especially if you know your levels are low and you haven’t enjoyed various types of exercise in the past. Exercise is very well researched for lots of reasons, but one thing that we are clear on is there is not one ‘best’ type of exercise. In fact the best exercise is the one that you keep doing. This comes down to enjoyment and your own beliefs and thoughts on exercise.
So no, you do not need to get in the gym, or start running, to get the health benefits that exercise offers.
ParticipACTION is an amazing resource around physical activity, with the mandate of helping “Canadians sit less, and move more through innovative engagement initiatives and thought leadership”.
The website is full of physical activity information. It includes the recommendations for physical activity for each age group, physical activity ideas and how to get started, how to get children engaged with physical activity, as well as much much more!
Here is the link https://www.participaction.com/en-ca
This is the perfect place to start if you wanting to improve the health of yourself and your family through physical activity and exercise.
If you have any difficulties, questions, or need any support to help with physical activity, please contact us and there are lots of ways we can help.