Here’s another reason to return to a regular exercise habit if you’ve quarantined 15.
An observational study of nearly 50,000 adults found that those who completed the recommended 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week were less likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 compared to more sedentary people who almost never they did not sweat.
The Kaiser Permanente study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on Tuesday was based on the anonymous records of 48,440 Californian adults who used the Kaiser health care system in the two years before the 2020 pandemic. And what’s remarkable about Kaiser’s data is that it has asked patients to include their exercise habits as a vital sign since 2009, so that researchers have been able to group men and women according to their self-reported physical activity. The least active group reported exercising for 10 minutes or less per week, and the most active group reported hitting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended 150 minutes or more of aerobic intensity activity. moderate every week.
The researchers analyzed the data to see if there was any correlation between how many people exercised regularly and whether they were diagnosed with COVID-19 last year, as well as the severity of their disease. And they found that adults who were constantly inactive, exercising less than 10 minutes a week, had a higher risk of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) and death from COVID-19 than people who met consistently lines of physical activity. Specifically, the least active group was hospitalized almost twice compared to the most active group. And the least active group was about two and a half times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the most active group.
“
Consistent adherence to physical activity guidelines has been strongly associated with a reduced risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes among infected adults.
”
Even patients who did not reach that 150-minute-a-week mark (exercising somewhere between 11 and 149 minutes a week) did better than those who almost never exercised, although their results were not yet clear. as large as more active adults who receive 150 minutes or more of physical activity per week.
The researchers also looked at the underlying health conditions and risk factors, such as their age, weight and whether they smoked. And they found that, in addition to old age and a history of organ transplantation, physical inactivity was the strongest risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes among nearly 50,000 patients.
Some warnings from this study include that patients self-reported how much they exercised, as well as how vigorous their workouts were. And as an observational study, this does not prove that people who work less will have worse COVID-19 than those who are more active. But it finds a correlation between regular exercise and better health outcomes, which has also been observed for several chronic diseases, including those such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which are associated with severe COVID-19. For example, getting 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day, such as cycling, can reduce your risk of cancer death by 31%, according to a study published in JAMA Oncology last summer.
“Consistent adherence to physical activity guidelines has been strongly associated with a reduced risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes among infected adults,” the researchers concluded in the new Kaiser study, recommending that public health agencies prioritize advocacy efforts. of physical activity as the pandemic continues.
But researchers also acknowledged that staying active became even more difficult during the pandemic than it was before, as people were urged to stay home for the past year, and many gyms and wellness centers were forced to close. to slow the spread of coronavirus. In fact, more than two in five adults surveyed (42%) revealed that they had gained more weight than they had planned in the past 12 months, packing an average of £ 29, according to a recent American Psychological Association (APA) survey. over 3,000 people. And one in 10 said he earned more than £ 50.
Read more: – Covid 15? If it’s just – this is how much weight the average person actually gained during the pandemic
Related: Gymnasiums lobby for Washington’s help, saying they are part of our health and fitness infrastructure
Before the pandemic, sedentary jobs that saw workers sitting at desks or lying on the computer all day increased by 83 percent since 1950, according to the American Heart Association. Johns Hopkins reports that physically active jobs now account for less than 20% of the U.S. workforce, down from about half of 1960 jobs. The average office worker spends up to 15 hours a day sitting.
So, doing two and a half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week, such as brisk walking or brisk dancing, can seem daunting. But it is possible.
It can help break down the 150 minutes into smaller blocks; it reaches less than 22 minutes a day or 30 minutes in five days, which can be broken down into 10-minute bursts several times a day. Moreover, health officials notice that any amount of physical activity is better than none, so it is good to start small and get going. Start by taking a quick 10-minute walk five times a week, perhaps during your lunch break or after dinner, which will add up to 50 minutes of weekly activity. Once it becomes a regular habit, you can extend the duration of those walks until you reach 150 minutes a week. And extra physical activity can have the added benefit of increasing your mental health if last year left you feeling burned out.
Or you can park your car further when you do errands or get off the bus or subway a stop earlier than you normally would to pick up in a few extra steps. We have more tips on squeezing exercises and finding ways to eat healthier and manage your weight here.