Dr. Brett Hill - Eat Think Move Chiropractic

In our modern lifestyles many of us spend way too much time sitting and don't get anywhere near enough exercise. In fact one of the most common questions I get from people is, ‘How much exercise is enough?'

We often hear that we should be doing half an hour of walking a day to keep our heart healthy, but what about the rest of our body? Obviously walking is only one form of exercise and doesn't test our strength, power, balance or coordination. So obviously there is more to it than that. The recommendation to walk is not a bad idea, but like many of these recommendations it is based on the minimum amount of work you can do to reduce the incidence of a particular condition (in this case heart disease). It is not based on how much exercise you need to function at your best or to be 100% healthy.

So how do we figure out how much - and what types - of exercise we need? Well, the best way to work it out is to look at how much exercise our bodies are designed to do. I mean think about it: we evolved over millions of years to be hunter-gatherers: walking, running, climbing, throwing, tackling and stretching for hours each day, and even finding time and energy to dance in the evening. So this is what our bodies have evolved to expect, and what they need in order to maintain their homeostasis (health).

If we look at studies estimating what an 80kg Palaeolithic (caveman) male did each day, we find that he burnt around 4000 calories. Around half of those are burned doing normal bodily functions like thinking, digesting and healing, but still that leaves 2000 calories a day that primitive man burnt by doing physical activity. Contrast that to a modern 80kg male, who burns just 2720 calories a day - and only 696 of those are from physical activity. In other words, we aren't doing anywhere near enough.

So what does 2000 calories a day of physical activity equate to? Well, it would be two hours of jogging, four hours of walking, three hours of weight training, two hours of sprinting, or 3.5 hours of dancing.

I know, I know, it's a lot, isn't it! The good news is that you don't need to do all that. If you are eating the right stuff you are going to have to work very, very hard to eat 4000 calories, and if you are smart about it, you can burn over half of those calories doing regular daily activities like walking to work or taking the stairs.

So what's left? Well, each day you should be aiming to do 30-60 minutes of exercise. This should include endurance exercise, balance and accuracy training each day, and two to three times a week some strength, power, stamina, coordination and agility training. Sounds like a lot, but remember you don't have to do all of these skills separately. In fact a well designed half-hour workout might contain all of these key elements.

And please don't fall for the trap of saying that you are too tired or you don't have enough time to do this exercise. I can guarantee you that if you just do it, you will get more energy than you can imagine and your increased productivity will means that it actually frees up more time in your day.

So if you don't do any fitness now don't try and do all of this tomorrow. Take it easy, pick one small step that you can start doing tomorrow and gradually build it from there and you WILL reap the rewards.