Going from fit to floppy can endanger your health
Many people may be disciplined enough to exercise regularly throughout the year. But come the holidays, especially as the year winds down, they may be tempted to slip into couch-potato mode.
This temptation must be resisted, because your body won’t thank you for a vacation from exercise — even if it is only for two weeks. It is hard to get fit and easy to lose that fitness.
Two new studies of older and younger adults point to significant health risks of even short stints of cutting back on exercise. The research shows that a two-week decrease in physical activity led to dangerous metabolic changes.
In some cases, these were reversible with resumption of normal activity levels. In many cases, however, the negative metabolic effects lingered even after participants resumed their normal activity levels.
The researchers say cutting back on exercise could set people up for an increased risk of type 2 diabetes — even without a family history.
One study, published in June in the journal Diabetologica, is by UK researchers at Liverpool University. They studied 45 metabolically healthy, active adult men and women aged about 36 who walked the recommended 10,000 steps or more most days. They reduced activity levels to below 2,000 steps for two weeks.
The enforced inactivity caused what the researchers call “metabolic derangements”. These include “altered body composition” — the participants showed a reduction in multiorgan insulin sensitivity (that protects from type 2 diabetes). The volunteers also had a less favourable cholesterol profile and a decline in cardiorespiratory fitness.
They also lost some muscle mass in their legs and gained fat around their abdominal areas. Experts call that kind of fat “visceral”, which has a nasty habit of “migrating” – moving into surrounding organs.
The Liverpool researchers conclude that public health recommendations on physical activity “should incorporate advice to avoid periods of sedentary behaviour”.
The second study, published in The Journals of Gerontology in July, is by Canadian gerontology researchers at McMaster University. They studied 22 overweight, prediabetic adults – 12 men and 10 women – over the age of 65. The participants reduced their level of daily activity from about 7,000 steps a day by 1,000 for two weeks.
Just as in the Liverpool study, the older volunteers showed metabolic changes. Blood sugar control worsened as their insulin resistance increased. Some had to be taken off the study after they showed signs of moving into full-blown type 2 diabetes after being less active.
Some were able to reverse the undesirable changes. However, most of those who remained in the experiment were unable to reverse the changes fully after 14 days of resuming normal activity levels.
The lead author of the McMaster study, Chris McGlory, is quoted as saying it is clear that just a few weeks of inactivity could leave people less healthy. In some cases, the changes may continue for a prolonged period with health consequences that increasing age tends to amplify.
His advice: “If it’s at all possible, don’t stop moving.”
It’s not normal to be sedentary. On its website, the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development says prehistoric man “didn’t have a chair to sit on. He was always on the move. There was no excuse for being sedentary.”
The same applies in modern times. The council endorses the growing view among many experts that sitting too much has become “the new smoking”.
It provides a good, quick test that can be tried at home to check if you have been sitting too much: sit cross-legged on the floor. Get up without using any support as you stand. If you can do it using only one hand, this “puts you in the top 25% in terms of musculoskeletal fitness”, the council says.
If you can’t get up, then “your health risks are much higher”. The prognosis: “You will live longer if you can sit on the floor and stand unassisted.”
Gauteng-based fitness trainer Olga Mmule Mphehlo agrees with the sentiments, especially the “don’t stop moving” bit.
But staying active comes as naturally to Mphehlo as breathing. She grew up in the City of Tshwane region of Hebron with a mother who was a football coach. Mphehlo was always sporty at school, playing netball and participating in track-and-field events. After leaving school, she moved seamlessly into studying fitness training and nutrition, qualifying as a personal trainer at Virgin Active. She has since branched out on her own.
Her recommendations to clients depend on their goals. If weight loss is paramount, she focuses on aerobic activities. Overall, though, Mphehlo says a balanced physical training regimen includes strength and flexibility training.
She isn’t against clients taking a break from their regular routine in the holidays — but doesn’t mean she advocates being sedentary. There are many ways to stay active on holiday, Mphehlo says, and you don’t have to be near a gym to do it. A long, brisk walk on the beach works wonders to keep you in shape, in body and mind.
And you don’t have to work out at top speed. As the anonymous, modern-day sage reminds you: “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everyone on the couch.”