Is being physically active and exercising the same? As a practicing health professional with an exercise background, I find myself having to clear this confusion a lot. It’s a confusion caused by the health care community with good intention, but it often creates a health outcomes improvement plateau sooner than later or it leads to no health improvements at all along with frustration from all parties. Exercise and physical activity are physiologically related by way of getting your body moving and the mechanisms your body uses to create and sustain the movement, but they are distinct concepts. Exercise is a necessary subset of physical activity. Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscular system while exercise is a planned, structured, time-bound sustainment of repetitive movements of the skeletal muscular system. Both are necessary for energy expenditure but it’s exercise that provides significant improvements to the skeletal muscular system and the cardiovascular system.
Exercise and physical activity are often used interchangeably. The reason it’s important to know the difference is because the level of physical activity you need to achieve a health goal like weight management or diabetes management, is contingent on where you are on your health journey. For instance, when I’m interviewing patients and I ask if they exercise, a frequent answer I get is, “Yes. I work at a warehouse, and I walk all day” or “I mow the lawn and work in my garden all the time”. While these are all good sources of physical activity, they aren’t exercise and they won’t necessarily be sufficient to sustain and maintain proper blood glucose management and energy metabolism or to deliver other health improvements you are looking to attain.
Here’s a quick overview of how exercise works for your health:
- Regular exercise strengthens your heart, which improves blood flow, lowers resting heart rate and blood pressure, utilizes blood glucose (energy) at a faster rate.
Let’s start with why a strong heart is important. A strong heart is important because it’s vital for pumping oxygen and nutrients into all the body’s tissues, cells, and organs, which allows them to function properly and keep you energized. It also helps the body remove waste products such as carbon dioxide. Improved blood flow or good circulation is essential for overall health. In addition to ensuring oxygen and nutrients are efficiently delivered to every cell in the body, good circulation aids in wound healing, immune system support, healthy skin and complexion.
A lower resting heart rate is important because it signals good cardiovascular health, leading to stronger, more efficient heart that pumps more blood per beat. Your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver blood throughout your body. A lower resting heart rate can also increase the longevity of your heart, leading to a longer lifespan. Studies show that each additional heartbeat per minute is linked to higher risk of premature death.
As far as exercise and blood glucose management, one bout of exercise can sustain improved blood glucose control for up to 24 to 48 hours. The exact duration depends on the type of exercise, the vigorousness of it, how much you did during the bout of exercise and the type of exercise you engaged in.
These are just some of the many wonderful health benefits of exercise. Remember, when looking at physical activity recommendations, they are really referring to exercise or planned, time-bound, sustained, structured movement of the skeletal muscular system. Exercise should be done in conjunction with being physically active.