Incidental activity has decreased, while high-intensity exercise has slightly increased
Posted Apr 20, 2020 12:08:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ParticipACTION is a national non-profit organization that strives to help Canadians to move more and stay active.
Stay at home orders are still in place, which means, more time on the couch. As time is spent at home, ParticipACTION is seeing a drop in incidental activity.
“That has been removed from our day-to-day schedule because of the pandemic,” said ParticipACTION Exercise Scientist, Dr. Leigh Vanderloo.
Dr. Vanderloo said incidental activity can be anything from walking around in an office, walking to school, or going to the store.
With more time at home, Dr. Vanderloo said PariticipACTION is seeing a slight increase in higher intensity workouts.
“I think one of the reasons behind that is because people are taking more time to just exercise, rather than just trying to get more light exercise throughout the day … so it's sort of purposeful,” said Dr. Vanderloo.
Vigorous workouts can be anything that increases the heart rate rapidly, such as a 15-minute workout video.
Dr. Vanderloo added it is important to stick to a routine, and do the intense workout at the same time of day, so it becomes a habit.
