The Physical Activity Guidelines are the foundation for all exercise and long-term health goals you may have. If you are exercising at all, you are probably at least partly meeting the guidelines. I’ll provide the details so you can self-assess in a moment. But first I want to talk about how this fits with a trauma-informed framework.
Awareness of trauma and how it shows up in peoples’ lives is a necessary, but by itself insufficient condition for improving long-term health outcomes.
Put another way: if you are standing in the middle of a forest fire, feeling seen and heard is just the beginning of what constitutes care. “Hey I see you over there, you’re awesome! Help is on the way =D!” Showing empathy is how we create feelings of safety and trust, from which we can empower individuals to enact structural changes to their life, and over time put out the fire.
A second element of trauma-informed, evidence based care is demystifying power, in this case making clear the what, why, and how of the activity guidelines, to empower marginalized groups to have more self-efficacy around their health.
So, let’s demystify.
The Physical Activity Guidelines were first published in 2008 by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and were updated in 2018. If you don’t like to buy American, the World Health Organization has guidelines that say the exact same thing.
In summary, the guidelines are a compilation of the most recent scientific research around best practices for activity for the general population. They apply to all adult bodies 18 years and older, with separate but similar guidelines for children and adolescents, as well as for older adults with chronic conditions or disabilities.
By meeting the guidelines over a long period of time, you greatly reduce your “hazard ratio,” which in layman’s terms means you reduce your risk of an early death.
So, one way or another, a key part of our work will be in helping you move towards regularly achieving these guidelines. Not in a hurry, but steadily.
The important things about these guidelines are what they say to do, and that they are based not on a single study, but on a collection of studies known as a meta-analysis.
A meta-analysis is a review of many independent studies that meet certain criteria for quality. If many high quality, independent studies keep coming to the same conclusions, those conclusions are considered more meaningful scientifically.
The shared conclusion of the studies that back up the guidelines is this:
Exercise is health-promoting and chronic disease risk-reducing, and we know how much and what kinds of exercise you need to do to achieve the benefits yourself.
So what are the Physical Activity Guidelines? Stay tuned for that in part 2.
Mauricio
References:
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. PMID: 30418471
World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33239350/
WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK566048