Upon hearing the health recommendation to do physical exercise, most people decide to go to classes at a gym, run, sign up for a team sport, or do an intense exercise. But the truth is that there are different ways and intensities to move the body, and becoming aware of how to do daily activities to get the most out of it can be easier and more beneficial than we think.
As explained by Dr. Ángel Durántez, one of the pioneers in the state in Medicine for Healthy Aging and Proactive Preventive Medicine, “you have to move, let everyone do what they can.” One of the factors that explain the great longevity in the societies of the so-called blue zones is the activity they have. “The population has very active lives, even if they don't play sports: they work in the garden, fish, ride a bike, climb stairs... In modern society, the tendency is to sit, take the car and take the elevator. Get moving!” says Durántez.
What we call physical activity is non-exercise thermogesis activity, NEAT. “You have to walk to places, stand up straight, work upright or sitting on a fitball to exercise your core, get up from your workplace from time to time. Then we have the exercise, which is when you put on your shirt and pants to train. Another thing is sport, when you play a tennis match. But the most important thing is to move,” says Durántez. This is what physiotherapist Lluís Puig defines as incidental exercise.
According to physiotherapist Clara Bergé, musculoskeletal pathologies of high prevalence and low complexity “are directly related to a lack of daily physical activity. It's not that people don't go to the gym, but that many people don't move in their daily lives.”
The specialist, who practices at the CEM Trèvol Lleida, is a professor of Physiotherapy at the Tecnocampus of Mataró and is also a member of the Board of the College of Physiotherapists of Catalonia, adds that “by changing this habit, accumulating energy expenditure only with daily activities, "There would be a very large reduction in this type of musculoskeletal pathologies, in addition to cardiovascular and metabolic pathologies such as diabetes or hypertension."
To make good use of incidental exercise we have to be aware that we are doing it, or at least try, and adopt it as a routine habit with a purpose. “It's about setting small challenges for ourselves on a daily basis, being aware of the activities to get the most out of them,” Puig explained to RAC1.cat.
The simple act of sitting 2.5 hours less each day can result in caloric expenditure of 350 kcal more, according to this 2005 study.
