Is 10 Minutes Too Much to Ask?

Brisk walking is walking at the speed you feel your heart pumping.

During the past week walking has been hitting the headlines in the UK. This is because the health benefits of 10 minutes of brisk walking a day are evident, easily achievable and should be done by everybody right? Surprisingly 6.3 million britons between 40-60 years old don’t even achieve a measly 10 minutes of brisk walking a month. It is recommended that adults achieve 150 minutes of exercise per week so not even 10 minutes a month is startlingly low.

One brisk walk a day will cut risk of early death by 15%

As mentioned previously on Physiospot, NCDs (non-communicable diseases) are a serious problem worldwide. Namely four different types of disease significantly contribute to the burden of NCDs more than any other. The big four are cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease. All has a solid base of evidence showing the benefits of exercise. Let’s face it, we all know that.

With so much evidence backing exercise for the prevention, management and rehabilitation of some many diseases and disability, how have we failed to get the message across to so many people. The reasons are likely complex but this does not hide the fact we have failed to enable people to exercise.

Exercise Works

The discovery that a large proportion of adults do not walk begs the question; If people aren’t willing to exercise for 10 minutes a week, how can we expect our patients to participate in rehabilitation?

In the UK TV ads have started appearing and there has been a big push for the use of an app called Active10. It’s an easy to use app to show that 10 minutes is achievable for everyone. It sets realistic goals and allows users to build up to achieving 10 minutes. Lets hope it works, lets hope that more middle aged people get moving and exercise. Let’s face it, it can’t get much worse can it?