Since the Olympic winter games are taking place as we speak in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, I thought it would be a great time to discuss a topic that does crop up every so often in my physiotherapy practice in Toronto.
While watching the Olympic games, we can see incredible feats of athletic prowess and extraordinary examples of the constantly evolving boundaries of human performance.
With the constant chant for “Citius, Altius, Fortius” reverberating in their minds, athletic limits are being tested and achievement records are being broken.
So this begs the question: Is performance really healthy?
Just perusing the biographies of almost any of the elite athletes that have qualified to represent their countries at the highest level of competition, one can see an almost infinite variety of minor to serious injuries that these extremely conditioned individuals have overcome to reach their personal achievements.
Now going back to the question regarding performance and health, here’s my take in one word.
NO…
And here are a few more of my words…
Performance is very seldom healthy.
Olympic Weightlifting Injury
Before I get pilloried on the internet, let me qualify that preceding statement.
In the pursuit of extremes, in the pursuit of redefining the boundaries of human athletic performance, in the pursuit of winning medals at the highest levels of competition, athletes must be in peak physical and mental condition and must undertake rigorous training programs.
But in order to do what has not been done before, risks have to be taken.
This is where limits are pushed, where boundaries are stretched.
This is where that razor thin line between risk and reward is often crossed.
Nodar Kumaritashvili
This is where, as was witnessed just a few short days ago, a young Georgian luger by the name of Nodar Kumaritashvili, lost his life in a horrific crash while he was pursuing his dream of winning an Olympic medal for his country.
I’ve always believed that the human body is capable of incredible feats.
And that as time passes, as science and technology advance, we’ll be able to perform at even higher levels.
But for most people, are these levels of performance required?
Do most people need to test the limits of their bodies?
When these athletes train to extremes, they constantly put their bodies at risk.
Risk of injury, risk of over-training.
At what point does the average human being decide that the risk is not worth the reward?
Or, when does one decide that they are okay with being just average?
The second point brought up in the previous couple posts relates to the risks of too much sitting and limiting everyday, non-exercise activity.
I’ve already spoken about the dangers of sitting in a quite a few of my previous physiotherapy blog posts, so I won’t belabour that point.
What I will say is that even for those who are fairly physically active, prolonged sitting will still cause problems, the same as it will for those who are more sedentary.
This is where NEPA comes into play.
NEPA or Non-Exercise Physical Activity (I’ve talked about it as NEAT or non-exercise activity thermogenesis previously) is all the other movement you do during your day that doesn’t count as exercise. The “everyday life activity”. This is where that leisurely stroll, the housework, and yes, even the fidgeting comes in to play.
Why is NEPA important?
Think of it this way…It’s a lot easier to get a few minutes of NEPA frequently throughout the day than it would be to set up an intense exercise activity regularly and consistently through your day.
If you can increase your non-exercise physical activity by 15-20 minutes a day in spurts of 1-2 minutes at a time, over the course of your week you will have added around 2 hours of increased movement. And most of you won’t even notice the added bouts of 1 minute movement.
It won’t interrupt your day.
It won’t cost you much in terms of time to take the stairs instead of the elevator, but the health benefits multiplied over a long period of time can be significant.
This takes me back to an article I was emailed some time ago.
According to that article, in the past 150 years non-exercise related calorie burning has dropped by about 2000 calories a day.
Yup.
2000.
That’s the same number that is used as the baseline total daily calories for calculating percentage of daily values for nutrient requirements in American food labeling.
150 years ago, we used to burn more calories with non-exercise related activities than we are supposed to take in daily today.
