Dal’s weekly health column.
For many students, September is a “new year” of sorts and many pledges of change and betterment are declared as we start classes and return to the regular student routine. With fitness often a common theme of these goals, it is ironic that new semesters are infamous for the freshman 15—a condition which can also plague returning students—and other variations of weight gain. For those hoping to beat the nasty bulge boogieman, Canada’s revised fitness guidelines are a great place to start.
Up until last year, Health Canada distributed paper versions of their fitness guidelines which looked straight out of the 80s, but that changed this January when the Canadian government decided to upgrade those aged standards. Over the past few years the government has worked with the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology (CSEP) to develop a new set of updated guidelines designed to get Canadians moving.
The result was a simplified and far less strenuous threshold for achieving a physically active lifestyle. For us adults (even those of us who still act like children), the recommended activity time has been downgraded from 60 minutes daily to 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity per week and it is suggested we add at least a couple days of strengthening activities to the mix.
What does that mean to non-Kinesiology students? Let’s delve into it a bit further.
150 minutes per week may seem daunting at first, but breaking the time into smaller chunks says otherwise. For instance, this goal can easily be reached by exercising 30 minutes a day for five days. If you can’t reach that target, you can exercise a little more on some dates to make up for the busy times that don’t allow it.
Moderate to vigorous activity allows for a lot of possibilities that do not necessarily involve the Dalplex. The simplest example is brisk walking. Depending on your fitness level and experience with physical activity, this may be enough for you to cross the vigorous threshold. Sports are not for everyone, but even going out and throwing a frisbee or football on Wickwire can make those 150 minutes disappear with ease.
If you’re at a slightly higher physical level, your task is a bit harder, but not daunting. Jogging, cross-country skiing, taking a dance class and almost an infinite amount of other activities will help you get there. The key is to start small, ease into new activities and build from there. Doing too much and frustrating yourself can often lead to defeat, at least in one’s mind.
Patience is the key to success. If weight loss is your goal, meeting the fitness guidelines is the best start and will lead to growth and progression. The guidelines set out by CSEP are meant to be an achievable minimum for just about everyone. In fact, tons of research has gone into demonstrating that moving from being a couch potato to at least 150 minutes a week of physical activity will make a monumental change in a person’s well-being.
Give it a try for a few weeks and if you don’t feel substantially healthier, happier and accomplished, well, that would make you, me and CSEP feel pretty bad. Then we might as well drown our sorrows at the Grad House.
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