You don't have to train like an Olympic athlete to experience health benefits from exercise. Walking, bicycling or even raking leaves will do, says the first surgeon general's report on physical activity and health, released Thursday.
To emphasize the point, Vice President Al Gore, his wife, Tipper, and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala were taking a brisk walk from the west wing of the White House to the closed-off section of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the mansion to address reporters.Americans are "very much out of shape," Shalala said Thursday. "I think it is in part because everyone thinks they need to join a health club. They really don't. They can walk the dog as I did this morning."
Wearing a red sweat band around her head and a blue polo shirt with an Olympics emblem, Shalala said during a CNN interview that the key message of the report is that physical activity makes people feel mentally better.
She said the government is releasing the report a week before the Olympics to advise "the rest of us" about what constitutes fitness.
Shalala, an avid sportswoman, said, "The good news is you don't have to train like an Olympic athlete to enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle."
"In the 1950s, we emphasized the health benefits of team sports," Gore said in prepared remarks. "In the 1970s, we focused on intensive aerobic exercise. Now, in the 1990s, a compilation of scientific research offers an historic new perspective on the importance of regular moderate physical activity for virtually all Americans."
Acting Surgeon General Audrey Manley said, however, that the report should be considered a national call to action.
"Physical inactivity is a serious nationwide public health problem, but active and healthful lifestyles are within the grasp of everyone," she said.
Moderate physical activity is defined by the surgeon general as using 150 calories of energy per day, or 1,000 calories per week.
Walking for 30 minutes, swimming laps for 20 minutes, washing and waxing a car for 45-60 minutes or pushing a stroller a mile and a half in 30 minutes will fill the daily bill.
Other reports have recommended similar amounts of exercise. The Agriculture Department and HHS issued dietary guidelines in January that recommended 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, such as walking, canoeing, dancing or gardening.
If you are already moderately active, increase the duration, frequency or intensity and you'll experience greater health benefits, says the surgeon general's report.
Sedentary people should start with short exercise sessions of five to 10 minutes and gradually build up to the recommended levels.
Besides reducing risk of chronic illness, regular physical activity also appears to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, improve mood and enhance ability to perform daily tasks throughout life.
More than 60 percent of adults don't get the recommended amount of physical activity and 25 percent aren't physically active at all, says the report.
Inactivity increases with age. Women are less active then men. People of lower income and less education are less active then higher income, educated Americans, said the report.
Fifty percent of people ages 12-21 are not vigorously active on a regular basis and females are less active than males in this age group as well.