The main objective of the Bloomberg Manulife Prize is to get important research findings to you, the public. And so we are delighted that our inaugural winner, Dr. Steven Blair has a message that is simple, effective, and easy to incorporate into your everyday life: 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day.
Sure, you've been told exercise is good for you - but here's a world-class scientist who has broken it down: if you do 30 minutes of light activity per day, you have a very good chance of reducing your mortality rate by 50%. That's it! You're decreasing the chances of dying early from heart problems, stroke, diabetes and a host of other unwelcome ends.
To make things even easier, here's a handy little video, and below, we've distilled some of Dr. Blair's advice into concrete action points so you can get started straight away:
Do it today!
- Book a regular sports activity with friends: try tennis, swimming, or badminton twice a week
- Get a dog (or offer to walk someone else's): Research shows that most dog owners get the recommended 150 minutes exercise per week just from walking their pet.
- Get off the bus one stop early or park a few blocks from work, the walk contributes to your 30 minutes a day (one study found that for every increase of 10 minutes in your walk to work, there is a 12% reduction in the likelihood of getting high blood pressure).
- Try giving up TV: A large Australian study found that TV watchers (lifetime average of 6 hours per day) live about 5 years less than those who don't watch TV.
- How about dancing? Any kind counts, but try latin favourites like Salsa and Samba to really get your heart pumping.
- You've heard it before - take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Be active around the house: activities like cleaning windows, vacuuming, and gardening can all contribute to your 30 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment