“I walk 10,000 steps per day”, “I have an active job”, “I do a lot of work around the house” – these are answers I often hear when I ask people whether they exercise. Let’s get one thing straight – these aren’t forms of exercise. Movement – yes. Activity – yes. Exercise – not even close.
Original source: here.
We’ve already covered in a previous article why gardening isn’t exercise, and in this article, we’ll explain the differences between being active and being fit.
Active simply means you’re not bedridden. You’re not Al Bundy, who sits on the couch during their free time, watching TV. The bar to be active is low. But don’t lump physical activity and exercise into one category.
All exercise is physical activity. But not all physical activity is exercise. Going grocery shopping is indeed physical activity. But it doesn’t get you fit. Vacuuming and cleaning your home is indeed physical activity. But it also doesn’t get you fit.
So what are the differences? This is where definitions come in.
- Active: we defined that earlier – not being bedridden.
- Exercise: a deliberate attempt to improve a fitness quality.
Let’s break it down:
- Deliberate: it means you are purposely – not accidentally or as a side effect – making progress at something.
- Improve: you are trying to get better at it. There’s progression involved. You’re going to be slightly better at it the next time you do it.
- Fitness quality: there are 3 major fitness qualities – strength, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility. There are also other secondary fitness qualities, like speed, agility, muscular endurance, balance, and others.
If you compare the definition of exercise to physical activity, you’ll see that there are no similarities.
Being active is not deliberate. The purpose of being active is to well… complete the chosen activity. Not to improve your fitness. You’re not vacuuming (for instance) to improve your cardiovascular endurance. You’re vacuuming to clean your home.
Physical activity is not progressive. You’re not measuring the amount of time it took you to vacuum, and trying to beat that the next time. You’re also not measuring how many flights of stairs you climb at work, and trying to beat that the next day.
Non-exercise physical activity doesn’t improve strength, endurance or flexibility. Why? Because it’s not strength, endurance or flexibility training.
What is cardiovascular exercise? It’s a 2-part definition. The two parts are:
- Intensity: you have to work above 65% of your maximal heart rate.
- Duration: you have to maintain that heart rate for a minimum of 20 minutes (as a beginner. More if you’re past the beginner stage).
It needs to meet both criteria in order to be cardio. When people walk around at work, they’re not exactly walking with the aim of taking 20 minutes to get from one office/cubicle to another. And they’re also not walking with the aim of getting above 65% of their maximal heart rate. They’re walking with the purpose of getting to where they need to go.
We need to stop believing that being active and being fit are the same thing. Case in point:
- I had one client who walked her big, energetic dog for 2 hours per day, 7 days per week – yet she was still 150 pounds overweight. She was active. Very active. But not fit. The 2 hours per day didn’t cross the intensity threshold to improve her cardio.
- I worked with a construction company to improve their workplace wellness. When I interviewed their staff, about 40% of them were type 2 diabetics – much higher than the general population. Yet, who’s more active than construction workers? Not very many people.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s far better to be active than sedentary. But it’s even better to be fit.
- Sedentary is the worst.
- Active is better.
- Fit is the best.
So this is not just an opinion piece (I know that if it’s a battle of opinions, your own opinion wins over mine. After all, it’s your opinion), I’m going to bring my receipts – studies. Hopefully in the presence of some hard data, it’ll be enough to change your opinion.
Cardiovascular endurance is measured with something called “VO2max.” If you really want to know, the V stands for “volume”, O2 is oxygen. In one study, researchers recruited people with an average age of 60, and measured their VO2max. These people were active, but didn’t do any deliberate cardio. Their VO2max was 27.7 ml/kg/min.
Another study took adults of a similar age who were active, but not fit. For 6 months, they did deliberate cardio, and by the end of the study, their VO2max ranged from 33.8-38.5 ml/kg/min. That’s a huge difference between active and fit.
What about strength? One study found that even in older adults (over 60) who are active, many of them experience sarcopenia – a loss of muscle mass enough to be diagnosed as a medical condition.
One meta-analysis (which is a study that looks at the aggregate of many studies) analyzed what happens when you take already active older adults, and put them on a deliberate strength training program. Even in people over 80, their strength can improve by 30-100% in a 4-month span.
In another study, 85 active (not sedentary) people with an average age of 72 were divided into 2 groups:
- Group 1: stayed active, but did no deliberate exercise.
- Group 2: stayed active, and did strength training.
After 4 months of strength training, the strength of group 1 was unchanged. Group 2 improved their strength by 41%.
The message: fitness is not an accident. Fitness is not a side effect of being active. It needs its own dedication.
What these 2 points mean in everyday life:
- If you’re 60 and active (but not fit), you might be low in energy, have high or borderline high cholesterol/triglyceride levels, might be prediabetic or diabetic, have fatty liver, not sleep that well and have a few extra pounds.
- If you stay active, but not fit, by 80, you might need to be either in a nursing home, or have a family member caring for you.
- If you’re 60 and not just active, but fit, you don’t complain about your energy levels. You’re proud that while your friends are all on at least one medication (and some of them on many more), you’re not on a single one. You do whatever you want to do. You want to play pickup basketball or hockey? You do it. You want to go skiing? You do it.
- If you’re 80 and not just active, but fit, you still have no complaints about your energy levels. The thought of a nursing home never even crossed your mind. You play with your grandkids, you travel wherever you want, without wondering whether you’ll be able to get everything out of it. If you’re unfit, your only choice is a beach vacation, where you can walk the beach. If you’re fit, you can go to the very hilly street of Portugal, or hike up the Swiss alps. No problem.
The difference in quality of life between older adults who are active and those who are fit is amplified with time.
Furthermore, “fit” is domain specific. Just because someone can lift a lot of weight doesn’t mean that they have a lot of endurance. And just because someone can run a marathon doesn’t mean that they’re strong. And just because someone does yoga, and can twist themselves into a pretzel doesn’t mean that they have good endurance or strength. Each fitness quality must be trained individually. You don’t accidentally get strong by doing yoga or jogging.
If you need help improving your fitness, we have a special program called “Fit Over 50.” If you’d like to see whether that program is for you, just till out the application form on our home page. Filling out the application form doesn’t obligate you to anything. We’ll just schedule a quick, 10–15-minute chat to understand your situation, your goals, and whether we can help you get there. There’s no pressure or sales pitch.
