How much physical activity are you doing each week?
As a nation we are not doing so well…
In fact, most of us do not come anywhere near the expected activity levels for health… highlighted in this 2016 epidemiological study of the total physical activity and strength exercise behaviour of 9345 Australians.
The study concluded that…
“The large majority of Australian adults do not meet the full physical activity guidelines and/or reported excessive sedentary behaviours.”
Only 18.6% met the strength training guidelines…
This begs the question…“are we becoming less active and chronically underloaded as a nation?”
What should you do if you have little inclination nor the time for physical activity or to workout in the gym?
While I strongly recommend everybody should be doing some form of strength training, specifically barbell training, I do see patients from time to time who have never lifted anything heavy in their lives nor want to.
Don’t worry… all is not lost.
Most importantly, understand that your shoulder rehabilitation is not all about your shoulder as you’ll discover…
There are also plenty of daily options available to get your recommended 3000-4000 METs of activity per week.
A ‘MET’ being the Metabolic Equivalent of a Task (i.e. the energy cost of a task)…
With 1 MET = the amount of oxygen you consume at rest.
An article in the British Medical Journal by Kyu et al (2016) suggested that total physical activity needs to be several times higher than the current recommended minimum level of 600 MET minutes/week to achieve larger reductions in risk of serious diseases like breast and colon cancer, diabetes and ischemic heart disease.
The article recommends taking into account all domains of physical activity thereby increasing the opportunities for it’s impact…
If the gym is not your scene, here are some alternative ways in which your daily activity requirements could be met.
- Climbing Stairs – 10 minutes
- Gardening – 20 minutes
- Vacuuming – 15 minutes
- Walking or Cycling – 25 minutes
- Running – 20 minutes
But wait! There’s more…”
Helen Sanders editor of the reputable health website ‘Health Ambition’, goes a little deeper and broadens our awareness of the opportunities available to us for incidental exercise with her article “7 common activities with surprising, yet little known health benefits”.
Why is this relevant for you?
Firstly, your shoulder pain is not all about your shoulder.
There are opportunities for movement everywhere so don’t think you have to turn into some gym junkie to be well.
We see improved outcomes for people who participate in regular physical activity, so if you feel so inclined then get started today.
Your shoulder and body will thank you for it…
The advantage is, being active provides you with more options to reduce your pain through movements and exercises that are not already associated with pain.
It seems that general and specific exercises are equally effective.
No movements should be off limits forever…
