Are we exercising as much as we should?

The government targets for exercise have been set for a while and recommend 150 minutes of moderate (or 75 minutes of vigorous) exercise per week for those aged between 19-64 (See the NHS website for details). 

But how much exercise do we actually do? Studies have shown that we all very good at overstating the actual amount of exercise we do each week. 

In his recent blog, Cardiac Rehab founder Dr Bethell talks about this topic in more detail.   In a study by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), they sent questionnaires on exercise to a large sample of the adult population. Based on the participants’ self-reported data, 39% of men and 29% of women met the exercise recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer. They then used accelerometers (a sort of sophisticated pedometer) to record actual activity and found that when exercise levels were measured over a week, 6% of men and 4% women achieved the government’s recommended physical activity level. That’s quite a big difference and either we are not being entirely truthful with the HSE of simply deluding ourselves. 

You can read more about this study on Dr Bethell’s blog 

So it sounds like we need to up our game and simply exercise more! What more excuse do you need to go for a walk, hoover with vigour or get back to the gym! We hope to see you again soon…