NEW YORK (CNN) – A history of steady activity is strongly associated with a reduced risk of severe COVID-19, according to a new study published Tuesday.
The Kaiser Permanente study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, looked at nearly 50,000 adults with COVID-19. The research found that those who met the goal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ physical activity guidelines – at least 150 minutes a week, moderate to vigorous physical activity – showed significantly lower incidence of hospitalization, hospitalization. in the ICU and death due to Covid19 disease.
The guidelines, which are the same as the World Health Organization guidelines used by many nations, are based on research that supports the ability of physical activity to increase immune function, reduce systemic inflammation, increase lung and cardiovascular health, and improve mental health.
Despite all the benefits of regular exercise, it may come as no surprise that physical activity that meets these guidelines would also reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. Indeed, acute COVID is just one of many potential negative effects of sedentary behavior, a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, stroke and some cancers.
To date, risk factors for severe COVID-19, identified by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include old age, being male, and the presence of underlying comorbidities, such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.
Many of the risk factors listed are difficult – if not impossible – to mitigate, so it is understandable if you feel powerless in the face of some of them. However, the results of this new study could undoubtedly add inactivity to the top of the list. Because inactivity is a modifiable risk factor, you can probably control it! Read on to find out how.
To reach the 150-minute exercise threshold during a week, you need to do just under 22 minutes a day. For someone who doesn’t exercise regularly, it might sound a little overwhelming. But 22 minutes a day doesn’t have to mean signing up for a new gym membership or completely renewing your schedule.
With the right strategies, you can achieve your daily exercise goal with very few disruptions to your lifestyle, which is important to be able to support your new level of activity.
Here are five practical and sustainable strategies to help you get into active 22 minutes a day.
Important note: Before starting any new exercise program, consult your doctor. Stop immediately if you are in pain.
1. Take regular walks
Because walking is so accessible, it is easy to reduce its benefits. The reality, however, is that a brisk walk is one of the most underrated health-boosting and fat-burning exercises available to mankind.
I probably already go at least every day. Maybe go to the mailbox or from the car to the office. Would it be possible to add a five- or 10-minute walk through the neighborhood before receiving mail or entering your office?
Do you have a dog that you walk every day? Could you add time to the daily walks of the dogs?
If you’re not already taking regular walks, there’s an activity you enjoy and want to do more often that you can pair with walking, such as talking on the phone with a friend or family member or listening. podcasts, audiobooks or music? By combining an activity you enjoy with walking, it will make it something you look forward to doing more on a regular basis and will make it easier to add walking to your daily schedule.
2. Exercise short activity efforts
Physical activity guides do not specify that you need to exercise in large chunks of time every day. What is important is to reach the goal of 150 minutes each week. You can divide your activities into any time period are the easiest to manage for your lifestyle.
For people with more sedentary careers, it may be easier to go with shorter exercises. When you divide 22 minutes into smaller blocks of time throughout the day, you’d be surprised how fast time passes.
What if you did six short four-minute workouts? In 24 minutes, you would have two minutes. The same goes for eight attacks of just three minutes of exercise.
If this sounds good to you, check out this article for specific ways to exercise a few minutes every hour of the day.
3. Train smarter, not harder
When it comes to solving, the standard belief is that we need at least an hour a day. A 2016 study, among others, led many people to believe that the ideal daily exercise goal was 60 to 75 minutes. However, more recent research has disappointed these previous studies, finding that they were based on self-reported data, which were erroneous due to the fact that people mistakenly remember their actual activity levels.
Training for 22 minutes a day is more than enough to reach the weekly threshold of 150 minutes. An effective, heart-healthy way to get into those minutes is with a quick interval training session, consisting of four rounds of five exercises done for one minute each. These could include bodyweight exercises such as push-ups, knee bends, lunges, hip bridges and jumping jacks. Add a few minutes of heating and cooling and you will easily reach the 22-minute mark.
You can learn more about interval training here.
4. Return to the game
When you were a kid, did you play a sport? What were your favorite outdoor activities? Returning to the fun activities of your youth, you can add more exercise to your life in a fun and energizing way.
If you played basketball at school, could you return to it by participating in an adult league or finding a group to organize regular games? You may have started martial arts as a child, but you never got to your black belt. What is holding you back now? Is there a recreational activity that you and your other friend or a good friend could do together, such as tennis, golf, or cycling?
Or maybe you have your kids doing sports. Could you practice with them? If they are smaller, games like tag or hopcotch will bring you blood while you enjoy quality time together. For more ideas on family exercise, read this.
5. Track your activity
Do you really know how much moderate to rigorous activity you have every day? Like the people in the studies I mentioned above who misrepresented and did not report exercise activity, you may be reducing your own activity level.
There are countless wearable technology options for tracking your business. You might even wear one now. Whether you use technology or an old-fashioned pen and paper, when we track our business, we not only keep a more accurate record, but take an extra step in personal responsibility.
Responsibility helps us stay on track with fitness goals. A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people walk almost an extra mile a day when using an activity tracker on their phone or watch. And those study participants who had fitness trackers that provided exercise requests did even more.
No matter how you track your fitness – with wearable technology or simply keeping a journal – the act of keeping track of your progress will help you stay on track.
The-CNN-Wire ™ and © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner company. All rights reserved.