Current guidelines suggest Aussie adults should accrue at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week. However, 60% of us fail to meet this recommendation.
Many things go into making a healthy community, so the earlier services and infrastructure become available, the better.
Cecily Maller
Early residents in new communities are known as ‘pioneers’ – they arrive before many services are in place. A five-year study points to the many benefits of putting in good services early on.
People enjoy the green space of parks, but often their activities are of a fairly passive nature.
AAP/Bimal Sharma
Parks are found in most neighbourhoods, generally free to use and are enjoyed by diverse groups. Although most visitors don’t use parks for physical activity, modest improvements can change that.
Our bodies respond to exercising, eating, meditation and physiological processes differently.
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Teenagers spend one-third of their lives sitting down and three hours a day watching TV. New findings confirm that it’s not just their health that is at risk.
The physical and mental health benefits associated with moving, being active and mindful are not just limited to yoga.
Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock
One in six Australians will have a stroke in their lifetime. That’s about 51,000 strokes per year, or one every ten minutes.
Dire predictions on the future of children’s brains are shocking, not least because of how flimsy the evidence is to support these views.
zeitfaenger.at/Flickr
Baseless claims about the damage done to kids’ development create needless panic. And they distract from legitimate, evidence-based concerns with which parents need to engage.
Not as fast as they used to be.
Children running via Pan Xunbin/www.shutterstock.com
It’s almost universally recommended that for optimal physical and mental health, children engage in 60 minutes of physical activity each day and limit the time they spend watching TV, playing computer…
If you’re completely inactive just walking to the shops will help.
Alain Limoges/Flickr
Reema Rattan, The Conversation and Nicki Russell, The Conversation
Two articles published in today’s issue of The BMJ argue physical activity guidelines should focus on getting inactive people to move a little rather than having the entire population meet the 150 minutes…
Alternating between sitting and standing is best.
ramsey beyer/Flickr
It seems the world is finally coming to terms with the fact that humans evolved to stand, not to sit – well, health researchers, savvy office workers and many commuters, at least. The evidence is mounting…
Governments can provide environments that encourage physical activity.
Emily Orpin/Flickr
Almost two-thirds of Australian adults and one in four children are overweight or obese. Excess weight is responsible for 7,200 deaths each year in Australia, as well one in five heart attacks, half of…
Behave, or you do the 1,500 metres.
Nick Potts/PA Wire
The London Olympics. Remember them? Not so long ago we were talking about their legacy, hoping it would inspire a new physically active generation. A timely legacy, given children in the UK are among the…
If you’ve been sitting for an hour, you’ve been sitting for too long.
Image from shutterstock.com
Australians should aim for around 60 minutes of physical activity per day, double the previous recommendation, according the new national physical activity guidelines, published today. And for the first…