Do you have a physical job?
Are you running around from A to B, morning to night?
Occupational physical activity (PA) is the activity that goes with doing your day job.
Leisure time physical activity (PA) is scheduled and structured exercise- gym time, pilates class, run, bike etc.
Unfortunately, many of us equate our occupational PA as a substitute for planned leisure PA, but the health and wellbeing benefits just don’t add up.
Based off new research from Halternamm et al (2018) , here are 3 TOP reasons why!
*Inadequate activity dosage*: For improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, the body must be working at a high intensity of physical activity, of between 60 and 80% max aerobic effort. In contrast, occupational PA is typically low intensity and long duration spread over the day.
*Elevates 24 hour Blood pressure*: Occupational PA oftens involves long hours exposed to manual handling in static positions, heavy lifting, prolonging fixed postures. The muscle contractions necessary to stabilise your body throughout these positions, day after day, can be a cause of increased blood pressure, sustained even after you clock off.
*Increases inflammation*: CRP is a lab marker of inflammation in the body. CRP is known to elevate and sustain in people who endure long days of occupational PA over consecutive days of the week without appropriate recovery time. Increased inflammation is linked to many adverse diseases such as cardiovascular disease, and atherosclerosis (artery disease).
Talk to us here at East Coast Physiotherapy if you would like to know more.