Adding an exercise to a busy person’s life is sometimes difficult. Many people claim that their daily activities give them enough exercise to stay healthy, and in some cases this may be true. Physicians are beginning to recognize that what we do as part of our regular routines may count as exercise. For meeting the goal of aerobic conditioning, the movement we do routinely is helpful.
Aerobic conditioning is one component of exercise. Any activity that increases the heart rate and increases the body’s use of energy is good. A term given to this is “non-exercise activity thermogenesis,” or NEAT. It is also the exertion of daily living for many people. People who are up on their feet and walking all day are performing exercise. Among the professions that are known to have high levels of activities include waitresses, preschool teachers, maintenance workers, and mail carriers that have walking routes. Monitoring step counts on these people, they often have well over 10,000 daily steps.
Daily Activities and Physical Fitness
Regular activities of daily living can also be helpful in aerobic conditioning. During the summer, cutting the lawn and performing yard work keeps many busy for hours on end and adds 5,000-10,000 steps to a day’s routine. Doing household chores such as cleaning, laundry, vacuuming and doing dishes all require standing and motion. When shopping, park a little further away from the nearest door and walk the extra distance. To make it worthwhile, track how much you actually do with a fitness tracker. Good fitness bands that track heart rate and steps are now less than $100, and almost every smart phone has a built-in step counter that can be activated.
If you have chronic pain, aerobic conditioning is just one aspect of needed exercise. Conditioning maintains cardiac health, improves endurance and the ability to perform activity, and increases the body’s own painkilling compounds known as endorphins. However, most with chronic pain need to do more than just conditioning and need to also do routine stretching and strengthening. Physical fitness for everyone requires the combination of the above three routines. “NEAT” is a great way to meet the conditioning component of fitness. Developing a routine to meet stretching and strengthening goals to maintain function and decrease pain can be the focus of time spent exercising beyond aerobic activities.