By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
When Karyn Smith, health educator with the BGSU Office of Recreation, recently gave a talk at the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club about exercise as medicine, she assumed there were already advocates in the audience.
About a half dozen of her listeners attend the Silver Sneakers strength-training class she teaches on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. And they were probably glad she was there to talk, not to grill them with weights, chair squats, wall push-ups, stretching, and a variety of other exercises to improve their strength, balance, flexibility, and even mood.
Karyn Smith projected photos of her adult fitness classes during her Kiwanis talk.
And with several members of their class well into their 80s, and one in her 90s, they provide evidence for her message about the importance of physical activity. “A lot of them are fitter than some of our students,” she said.
Smith made sure there was movement in her presentation.
She asked questions about true and false and had the Kiwanis members respond by performing one of two movements.
When she asked, true or false: Physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Those who answered true—the correct answer—did a few arm circles. While the others indicated their answer as false by marching in place. No one did that.
That was one of the takeaways from the talk: incorporate movement into your day. Make sure that long periods of sitting are broken up by some movement. “Building little breaks into your day by doing micro bursts of movement can have benefits,” she said.
Smith said that in the 1970s, a doctor suggested that if all the benefits of exercise were in a pill, it would be the most prescribed drug on the market.
“In the right doses, exercise plays a key role in preventing chronic conditions and in treating and managing those chronic conditions,” she said.
The benefits last throughout one’s life.
It increases muscle strength, cardiovascular health and strengthens bones. It helps regulate weight. Regular exercise reduces anxiety, depression and stress.
It can help young people do better at school.
In adults, it reduces the risk of dementia and cancer and the risk of falls.
Improves a person’s mood by releasing “feel-good” hormones, chemicals and endorphins, and reducing hormones that cause stress. Exercise also increases neurons in the brain.
Smith said don’t overcomplicate exercise. Anything that gets your heart rate up is fine, whether it’s running, walking, cleaning or gardening.
One measure is to exercise 2% of the day. That is 150 minutes per week, or 30 minutes per day, five days per week, plus strength training twice per week.
True or false, she asked: 30 minutes at a time is better than three times 10 minutes. The answer is not true, which the audience indicated by doing modified jumping jacks. Those who thought it was true did chair squats.
True or false, she wondered: 50% of adults are not meeting physical activity recommendations.
A trick question, she admitted. The answer is incorrect (marching in place). Much less than that is enough exercise. Three out of four adults do not exercise enough. And even scarier, she said, four out of five high school students do not exercise enough.
Slide from Karyn Smith’s presentation shows the various practice activities sponsored by the BGSU Office of Recreation.
While high school students may be exercising, others may need to find ways to stay physically active. To address this issue for BGSU students, the staff at Falcon Fitness offers programs in the residence halls for those who can’t make it to the recreation center.
This lack of movement comes at a cost. She cited the figure that $117 billion in health is related to lack of physical activity. Four of the five most costly chronic conditions can be prevented or treated with physical activity.
Smith said she feels privileged to work at BGSU, which not only emphasizes the health of students, faculty and staff, but also focuses on the community with programs for children up to 90-year-olds.
They offer a wide range of activities such as cycling, yoga, pilates, dancing, swimming, climbing and more, in groups or with personal training.
“Everyone likes to be active in their own way,” she said. “To make exercise a habit … you have to enjoy it.”
