What is exercise?

5 watchers

The_Saint Jun 2018 11:43am, 30 Jun 2018 6,271 posts	0 The_Saint Recently in the parkrun thread I caused some quite odd accusations with my observations on walking and exercise, when people get this defensive it generally means some more investigation is required. Consulting the NHS for common-sense I get this nhs.uk "To stay healthy, adults aged 19 to 64 should try to be active daily and should do: at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or brisk walking every week and strength exercises on 2 or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms)" Completely unrelated to this I had done an experiment of my own back in May to discover whether walking at 4MPH was a realistic brisk walking pace and recorded it on ~~strava~~ strava.com (1.54 Miles in 22:13) Interestingly although not particularly so at the time, my average HR was 82 and maxed out briefly with a spike at 99, ~~strava~~ does this Heart Rate Stress Score in the extended statistics and it scored this walk as 5. Thinking of a recent time when I tried exceptionally hard in a race in hot conditions, I looked at my Welsh Castles Relay Stage strava.com where my average HR was 155 and the ~~strava~~ Heart Rate Stress Score was 115. So my question is - Is that brisk walk scoring 5 moderate exercise and my Castles Relay stage scoring 115 vigorous exercise ? For me the scaling factor just doesn't pan out realistically to call the walk anything more than very gentle exercise. I understand the "oh but a walk does all these other unquantifiable things", that is fine and lovely but is answering another question that I am not asking.
Derby Tup Jun 2018 11:59am, 30 Jun 2018 26,184 posts	0 Derby Tup Yes
simbil Jun 2018 11:59am, 30 Jun 2018 7,662 posts	0 simbil The essence of exercise in relation to getting fitter is managed overload. Too much overload does more harm than good and too little overload means your body is not stimulated to do anything about it. I'd guess elevating your HR to 82 for 20 minutes would only qualify as exercise if you have a very low level of fitness and lead a very sedentary life. For reasonably fit people it will do very little outside of active recovery. Not to say a walk for 20 minutes isn't good for your psychology, enjoyable etc etc.
njosmith Jun 2018 12:18pm, 30 Jun 2018 202 posts	0 njosmith If you are 50 years old and can run 5km in a little over 20 minutes, then a 20 minute walk is probably not moderate exercise. If you are 50 years old and haven't run much more than for the odd train in the last 20 years, chances are your heart rate will increase a fair bit more than 99 beats per minute and 20 minute walk could easily be called moderate exercise. What is easy for you may not be easy for all.
Dvorak Jun 2018 10:22pm, 30 Jun 2018 16,281 posts	0 Dvorak For you, gentle exercise and very vigorous exercise respectively. But you knew that already. May I suggest that, as a sample of one, you are highly unrepresentative of the general population?
The_Saint Jul 2018 3:12pm, 1 Jul 2018 6,272 posts	0 The_Saint As a further test, I started my Garmin whilst watching the Uruguay v Portugal World Cup match last night and let it run for 30 minutes (I didn't move at all, the apparent movement is GPS drift as I was indoors) strava.com This give a heart rate stress score as 2 (I was watching the game as an interested neutral). So - the walk scored 5 and the sitting watching TV scored 2, this really leaves no room at all for doubt that a brisk walk on flat ground should be treated with suspicion as being of the exercise value claimed. So, am I an extreme outlier ? Well I have never been anything other than a very ordinary club runner. Why don't other people try to repeat my tests, it is not that hard.
The_Saint Jul 2018 9:52am, 4 Jul 2018 6,281 posts	0 The_Saint Another walk, incidentally the one I thought I had found above, a bit quicker pace but average HR only slightly different strava.com
Robbo62 Jul 2018 11:37am, 5 Jul 2018 2,228 posts	0 Robbo62 By those measures would watching the whole game be classed as more vigorous than the brisk walk you did? Walking undoubtedly has it's benefits and some people are unable to run so this would surely be better than nothing at all. I do think that the guidelines set are too low, people by and large should be far more active than they are.
Gobi Jul 2018 11:52am, 5 Jul 2018 64,187 posts	0 Gobi In my crash rehab I spent an hour on the watt bike with my HR around 80 and scored 1 Low intensity for sure and not moderate but it was an hour of movement above rest
Little Miss Happy Jul 2018 12:47pm, 5 Jul 2018 827 posts	0 Little Miss Happy The brisk walk is supposed to be at an activity level that leaves you 'slightly out of breath' so therefore would depend on level of fitness. Unfortunately in my experience most people who think that there walk is 'exercise' are not exerting themselves to this extent. Better than not moving, yes, sufficient to meet the NHS guidelines, no.