Physical activity

Healthy Living

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Physical activity

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Taking steps towards a healthier you

Want to feel better, have more energy and even live longer? Getting active can be simple, affordable and fun and has benefits for everyone.

Australian perspective

Today, more than half the Australian adult population is not active enough to maintain good health. With obesity, heart disease, diabetes and depression on the increase, there has never been a better time to get physically active.

The good news is that it’s never too late to become active. Beginning or resuming activity at any age will benefit your health.

If you have a medical condition, are overweight, are pregnant, over 40 years of age or have not exercised regularly for a long time, see your health practitioner for medical advice before increasing your activity. They can refer you to an accredited Exercise Physiologists who can help you design an activity plan that is safe and helpful to your individual needs. In most cases the initial costs of the Exercise Physiologist will be covered by Medicare. Your local accredited Exercise Physiologist can be located through the Australian Association of Exercise and Sports Science (www.aaess.com.au)

Shift your thinking: Fitness not Body Weight

For many years the medical profession has promoted weight-loss as the best way to reduce your risk of diabetes and heart disease. Often the only advice given was to start exercising and go on a diet, but did not provide any further help or sustainable programs. More recently, reality television shows are promoting exercise and food restriction programs, with incredible weight-losses, that normal busy people can only dream of achieving. The good news is that just starting and maintaining a reasonable amount of activity for 30-45 minutes a day will provide greater and more sustainable health benefits compared to repeatedly trying to lose 5-10kg on fad diets and extreme health programs. So shift your thinking and aim to be active everyday and eat a healthy balanced diet. This approach will improve your physical and mental well-being, and ultimately help you reduce your body weight.

Benefits

Becoming physically active not only significantly lowers your risk of illness, but can also help to improve many pre-existing health conditions. More...

Exercise tools

Using tools such as pedometers and heart rate monitors as tools to assist your physical activity program are a great idea. They are affordable and user friendly, in most cases the cheapest base models will provide all the features you will need. More...

Getting active

The Australian National Physical Activity Guidelines for adults recommends a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days of the week to benefit your health. There are many ways to achieve this. More...