Walking around 100 steps per minute corresponds to “moderate” physical activity, while taking 130 steps at the same time causes “intense” activity. This is crucial for following the recommendations for physical activity.
150 minutes of “moderate” exercise or 75 minutes of “heavy” exercise per week. While the guidelines for physical activity are clear, they are not easy to apply, as they are difficult to measure on a daily basis. Aware of this problem, researchers from the University of Massachusetts have just solved it.
100 steps per minute
Catrine Tudor-Locke, Elroy Aguiar and Scott Ducharme have calculated that walking about 100 steps per minute corresponds to “moderate” physical activity, while taking 130 strides at the same time causes “intense” activity. To find your position, it is therefore sufficient to count once the number of steps taken in sixty seconds, and to adapt the time of physical activity to be accomplished every week depending on the result.
“This research establishes a very practical method for measuring the intensity of walking and it is rigorously validated by science”, welcomes Catrine Tudor-Locke. 80 men and women, aged 21 to 40, participated in the trial. 90% of the cohort’s natural walking pace was “intense”. “If you tell people to walk at their normal speed, they are likely to walk more than 100 steps per minute,” the authors note.
Walk, even a little bit
If these goals seem difficult to achieve, know that walking, even a little bit, is good for your health anyway. A recent study has just calculated that a simple increase of 1% in the number of public transport within a territory is associated with a lower obesity rate of 0.473% on the same surface.
“Moving more and sitting less will benefit almost everyone. People who practice the least physical activity benefit the most from its increase, even if it is low,” say public health experts. “Even short bouts of physical activity in small amounts are beneficial,” they conclude.
33% of French people have an insufficient level of activity
In the United States, only 26% of men, 19% of women and 20% of adolescents get enough physical activity. There, a tenth of premature deaths are associated with lack of exercise.
In France, 43% of adults achieve a level of physical activity that meets international recommendations, 24% have a moderate level of activity (the equivalent of at least 30 minutes of walking per day) and 33% have a level of insufficient activity. Men are more active than women, regardless of age. The proportion of people in a sedentary lifestyle (more than four hours sitting or lying down, excluding sleeping time) is 40% *.
Source: Onaps.fr.
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