COVID-19 and the LBD PCN

 Even though Alberta has lifted indoor masking requirements, masks are still required in a healthcare facility. All patients, guests, and staff will be provided with a new medical mask when they enter the PCN office.

Overview of the 24-hour Movement Guidelines for people ages 18-64 from the Leduc Beaumont Devon PCN Exercise Specialist

 24-hour Movement Guidelines for people ages 18-64: An integration of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep.

As an exercise physiologist who practices in the field of chronic disease management, I often have conversations with patients about increasing daily physical activity. Although beneficial overall, and depending on the individual, simply adding some physical activity to their day is not enough to truly produce the ideal level of heathy change for that person. These guidelines created by the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology (CSEP) are now available to help provide specifics to answer that question for patients.

The guidelines themselves can be broken down to a few specific categories to ensure a “healthy 24 hours”. These include physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behaviours, or time spend inactive or sitting.

Physical Activity

Beginning with physical activity, the recommendations continue to include 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity added up throughout your week as well as muscle strengthening exercises for your major muscle groups two times per week. It is important to keep in mind these recommendations are for an individual that does not have any medical conditions or disabilities that would prevent their ability to reach these activities levels. If an individual is not able to reach these guidelines from a medical standpoint, they should consult with their health care team to determine appropriate levels of physical activity. This also includes several ours of light physical activity such as standing, which I will speak more on later.

Sleep

The 24-hour Movement Guidelines recommends 7-9 hours of sleep, which includes regular wake and sleep cycles. This continues to follow the current guidelines and remains the gold standard for sleep goals.

Sedentary Behaviour

This is the time spent being inactive such as sitting at a desk, watching TV or sitting in front of a screen. CSEP currently recommends limiting sedentary behaviour to 8 hours or less per day with goals of less than 3 hours of screen time a day, and breaking up long periods of sedentary positions as much as possible; I always tell my patients to try not to sit for more than an hour at a time.

It is important to discuss how people can implement these guidelines and why the recommendations are what they are. Sleep is self explanatory, but I believe these guidelines truly shine when reviewing the recommendations for physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

The get the biggest benefit from the guidelines, people should try and create a goal of turning more sedentary time into beneficial light activities such as standing, walking, moving, and progressing times you may be performing these light activities into more moderate of vigorous activities. Progressing these activities in your day increases the amount of time you spend moving each day, the calories that you burn, and helps your body adapt to being more physically active. When progressing sedentary time to light activity times such as standing, it helps increase what is called NEAT which stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, NEAT is defined as the energy spent for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy spent walking to work, typing on a computer, performing yard work, doing yard work or gardening, and even fidgeting. The more you can move outside of planned times for physical activity, the higher your NEAT and the more calories you will burn and the greater, overall likelihood of positive health outcomes.

It is important to realize these are 24-hour movement guidelines and not physical activity guidelines. These new guidelines help to promote a greater range of activities per day, while emphasizing sleep and reducing sedentary behaviour and continuing to support the previous physical activity guidelines as provided by CSEP.

~ Adrien DeGroot BHK, CSEP-CEP, R.Kin, CSEP - High Performance Specialist, is an Exercise Specialist at the Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network. To access his services, please ask your PCN family doctor for a referral.

To view and participate in Adrien's at-home workouts, please check out our LBD PCN YouTube channel.

IWalk, why not you?

Getting kids more active on a regular basis is very important for their overall health.  The CanadianPhysical Activity Guidelines recommends that children ages 5 up to 17 years old should be getting at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity each day.  This should include vigorous-intensity activities and strength activities at least 3 days per week. 

As a result of technological advances, activity in daily life is decreasing at a substantial rate.  Modern conveniences such as remote controls, video games, electronic devices and even drive thru restaurants are all contributing to increasing sedentary lifestyles.   However, as parents we can set a good example for sustaining an active lifestyle. 

Help promote physical activity into your children’s lives by taking part in the IWALK international walk to school month in October 2014. International walk to school day is October 8, 2014. 

(click here to view image larger)

There are many resources available for researching safe routes and tips on dressing properly for our unpredictable weather.    Seize the opportunity to increase your own physical activity by taking part in the IWALK challenge with your children and walk with them to school or play with them in the park or own backyard after school, if that is available for you.

www.shapeab.ca

Corinne Cutler (Exercise Specialist) and Cherie deBoer (Chronic Disease Management Registered Nurse) work at the Leduc Beaumont Devon Primary Care Network.