Hippocrates once said that “Eating alone does not keep a person healthy, but exercise is also necessary“. In ancient times, exercise usually meant walking or running. Today, everything is rightly grouped under the term sport or physical activity, as many everyday activities have a positive effect on health and longevity. This is exactly what this article is about.
An article about sports and exercise We have already written about it in our magazine. There we tell you about the advantages at the moment, the positive effects on your immune system and the feelings of happiness that come with sport.
How much exercise do I need for a healthy life?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are different recommendations for the optimum amount of exercise - from newborns to seniors. There are also specific recommendations for pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses and people with disabilities. Based on different physical conditions, there are therefore different ideal values for the amount of exercise. Let's look at an example.
For the large group of adults aged 18 to 64, the weekly Recommendations as follows:
150 – 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity:
- Brisk walking
- Strenuous housework or gardening
- Easy cycling
OR
75 – 150 minutes of intense aerobic activity:
- Jog
- Fast cycling
- Hiking
- Team sports: football, basketball, volleyball etc.
- Carrying weights: at the gym or at work
The general recommendations include two or more training sessions that target all major muscle groups, in addition to reduced time spent sitting. 300 minutes a week sounds like a lot – especially when you consider that that is about 45 minutes a day. But this refers to moderate activities where most people do not think of sportsIf you cycle to work or to the supermarket, for example, you can easily reach 30 minutes a day. If you take care of the dust in your apartment yourself and don't send the robot vacuum cleaner, you'll have a few more minutes on your daily exercise account. So you don't have to become a marathon runner or a professional swimmer to achieve the recommendations.
A moving A look into the statistics books
About a quarter of all people around the world do not exercise enough. one in three women and one in four men worldwide are so inactive that it has a negative impact on their healthNaturally, the figures vary greatly from region to region.
What is surprising is that there has been no increase in global activity since 2001, although awareness of the value of physical activity has increased. This may be partly due to changes in the world of work, with the trend towards sedentary work in front of the computer.
According to Statista, Germany does not seem to be a sporty country in general. 40% of German citizens do not exercise in a sporting context. Only about a fifth are actively involved in sport, with more men being active than women. The most popular sports are fitness training, jogging, cycling, walking and swimmingThe most popular hobby among Germans is gardening, with over 25% - good for all those who now know that this is a completely healthy leisure activity.
How does sport and exercise affect your biological age?
As is well known, biological age can differ from calendar age. Epigenetic age tests measure biological age using methylation markers on the DNA. The simple saliva test provides information about how quickly you have aged in the past and shows you where you stand.
In the context of exercise, there are various indications of biological rejuvenation. One study followed study participants who completed a 30-minute exercise program every day and determined their biological age before and after the start of the study. After a longer observation period the biological age in the study decreased by about 15 yearsThis can most likely be explained by the positive effects of activity on the organism. Fat levels improve, muscles learn to work more efficiently, blood pressure and heart rate drop, and vascular health improves.
Do I have to exercise every day or is the weekend enough?
Now we have some insight into what activities are popular, how often people exercise, and how much we should exercise. Now comes the question of all questions: Needs healthy longevity daily exercise?
A large study from July 2022 with over 350.000 participants addressed this question. A surprising result emerged. There were no difference in the mortality of active people who exercise throughout the week and those who limit their exercise to two days. The so-called "Weekend Warriors“ (Weekend warriors) who use their days off to exercise have been just as active on these few days as other active people. The longer sessions have the same positive effect as many shorter sessions. People who, in accordance with the WHO recommendation, were active for over 150 minutes are considered active here.
The basis for the “Weekend Warriors” study was the mortality rates due to non-communicable diseases in various groups. On the one hand, there were people who were generally not active enough, those who were sufficiently active throughout the week and the “Weekend Warriors” who were sufficiently active but only on a few days.
There were significant differences between active and non-active people, but not between those who were active every day and those who only exercised at weekends. The study is based on a questionnaire in which participants had to state how often and how intensively they exercised during the week. The data was collected between 1997 and 2013.
Is there too much exercise or sport?
If you increase your training and consistently pursue your fitness goals, you will quickly see that the training pays off. Short distances feel easier after repeated running and dumbbells that you initially use for training are only suitable for warming up after months.
These effects are caused by a stimulus that affects your body. When you reach your limit, your body receives signals that it needs to improve. The body achieves this improvement in regeneration phases - it adapts to the required training workload during breaks.
It becomes problematic when you regularly exceed your limits and/or you do not allow yourself enough time to recover. The result is pronounced overtrainingThis condition will ultimately lead to a decline in performance and a lack of improvement, and the risk of muscular injuries or stress fractures increases.
Too much exercise can actually have a negative effect. If you are planning to intensify your training, we recommend working with trained specialists and sports doctors. They will help you not to overdo it at the beginning and then consistently increase your performance without slipping into an excessive state of exhaustion.
Source
Literature:
- Dos Santos M, Ferrari G, Lee DH, Rey-López JP, Aune D, Liao B, Huang W, Nie J, Wang Y, Giovannucci E, Rezende LFM. Association of the “Weekend Warrior” and Other Leisure-time Physical Activity Patterns With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Nationwide Cohort Study. JAMA Intern Med. 2022 Jul 5:e222488. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.2488. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35788615; PMCID: PMC9257680.
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
- https://de.statista.com/themen/64/freizeit/#topicHeader__wrapper
- Jakovljevic DG. Physical activity and cardiovascular aging: Physiological and molecular insights. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Aug;109:67-74. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2017.05.016. Epub 2017 May 22. PMID: 28546086.
- Eckstrom E, Neukam S, Kalin L, Wright J. Physical activity and healthy aging. Clin Geriatr Med. 2020 Nov;36(4):671-683. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2020.06.009. Epub 2020 Aug 19. PMID: 33010902.
- Cardoos N. Overtraining syndrome. Curr Sports Med 2015 May-Jun;14(3):157-8. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000145. PMID: 25968844.
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