People need to be active to be healthy. Our modern lifestyle and all the conveniences we`ve become used to have made us sedentary – and that`s dangerous for our health. Sitting around in front on TV or the computer, riding in the car for even a short trip to the store and using elevators instead of stairs or ramps all contribute to our inactivity. Physical inactivity is as dangerous to our health as smoking!
Add up your activities during the day in periods of at least 10 minutes each. Star slowly… and build up. If you`re already doing some light activities move up to more moderate ones. A little is good, but more is better if you want to achieve health benefits. Scientists say accumulate 60 minutes of physical activity every day to stay healthy or improve your health. Time needed depends on effort – as you progress to moderate activities, you can cut down to thirty minutes, four days a week. Physical activity doesn`t have to be very hard to improve your health. This goal can be reached by building physical activities into your daily routine. Just add up in periods of at least ten minutes each throughout the day. After three months of regular physical activity, you will notice a difference-people often say getting started is the hardest part.
(From Handbook for Canada`s Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Activity Living p.4. Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, Ottawa, Ontario, 1998)
Sedentery – involving a lot of sitting down; not active.
1. Nowadays people…
__A are less active than in the past __B do more exercises than in the past
__C are as sedentary as they used to be __D spend much time in the gym
2. Time needed for physical activity depends on…
__A health __B effort __C money __D person`s character
3. You can improve your health…
__A integrating physical activity into your timetable __B eating less and less during short periods of time
__C relaxing and keeping cool __D working as hard as possible
4. People say that…
__A getting into physical activity is the most difficult part
__B they do not have time for physical activity
__C getting into physical activity is not so difficult
__D they get enough physical activity