Personal Training 9c: The Dangers of Inactivity

This post is part of an ongoing series about my learning process as I train to become a personal trainer.  In this post, I’m going to consider all the dangers of inactivity that I can think of.

I’m going to imagine that I’m trying to persuade an overweight, out-of-breath, chair-shaped relative to begin an exercise programme before they pop their clogs at an early age.  This is my cheat sheet as I go into battle.

Being chair-shaped is only a good thing if you are a chair…

(photo credit Sean MacEntee)

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So far...

So far in this mini-series, we’ve covered as many of the barriers to starting a fitness programme as we could think of (and thanks to those of you who added more to the mix).  We moved on to think about all the benefits of a fitness programme and now we’re coming on to what happens to you if you don’t get moving. 

This is the bad stuff.  Stick with it.   While it’s frightening, it’s need to know.

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Why inactivity is bad for you

There are significant implications for resting the whole body - even for quite short periods of time.  They include:

• Loss of bone mass  - studies suggest that bed rest leads to excessive vertebral bone loss.  This is in accordance with Wolff’s Law of Bone.  I don’t know about you but I don’t want the thing that differentiates me from a jellyfish to crumble away to nothing…
• Loss of muscle mass - studies indicate that as few as 10 days of bed rest results in a substantial loss of lower extremity strength, power and aerobic capacity.  And while muscle mass means more to some people than it does to others, don’t forget that muscle mass is the key to youth, as described by Biomarkers.
• Loss of cardiovascular fitness - studies note a significant reduction of exercise capacity through confinement to bed rest.  The underlying physiological mechanisms include dramatic reductions in maximal stroke volume, cardiac output, and oxygen uptake. 
• Increase in visceral fat - inactivity makes you get fatter, particularly in those dangerous visceral areas. 
• Increased risk of certain diseases irrespective of bodyweight - I was surprised to find that physical activity reduces the risks of being overweight or obese insofar as they cause certain diseases (including cardiovascular disease mortality, coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cancer)and that active obese individuals actually have lower morbidity and mortality than normal weight individuals who are sedentary. 
• Increased risk of depression – most compulsive exercisers will tell you that doing something active puts them in a good mood but there are also scientific studies that link exercise with the reduced incidence of depression.
• Increased effect of ageing - the 30 year follow-up study to the Dallas Bed Rest Study showed that “3 weeks of bedrest in these same men at 20 years of age (1966) had a more profound impact on physical work capacity than did 3 decades of aging.”
• Reduced life span – and not only does it reduce quality of life and the risk of getting a so-called “disease of civilisation” but it also reduces your expected life span, even if you don’t get one of those diseases.

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These are very bad things…

I hope it goes without saying that these are all very bad things.  They are the opposite of all the really good things that we like to hope will be ours: long life, fulfilled life, health, vigour and happiness.

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A little goes a long way

And a little can go a long way, it would seem.  Many of the above studies talk about “moderate” exercise and “for 30 minutes” rather than in terms of busting your behind in the squat rack, fun though that may be.

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One body, by Mike Boyle

Mike Boyle has an enormous gift for taking a simple analogy and turning it a fable worthy of Aesop himself.  It’s so brilliant that I feel compelled to quote it at length.  When talking about basic fitness and health, Mike says:

“Imagine you are sixteen years old and your parents give you your first car.  They also give you simple instructions.  There is one small hitch, you only get one car, you can never get another.  Never.  No trade-ins, no trade-ups.  Nothing…  Ask your self how would you maintain that car?  My guess is you would be meticulous.  Frequent oil changes, proper fuel, etc…  Why is the human body different?”

And on that note, I rest my case.