Ask the Expert: Make your whole day matter!

January 20, 2021 - Defence Stories

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Canada’s first-ever 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults help Make Your Whole Day Matter. Move More. Reduce Sedentary Time. Sleep Well.

Q: As a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member, I maintain a routine where I do one hour of physical activity every morning before starting my work day sitting at my desk in front of my computer. A friend told me that there are new Canadian standards for physical activity aimed at maximizing your health. Could you tell me what these new standards are, and provide some important take-home messages? Capt. Deskwork.

A: Dear Capt. Deskwork: Your friend is right. There are new guidelines. These guidelines are the result of significant scientific research and are aimed at helping Canadians, including CAF members, use physical activity to maximize their health. So, congratulations on your commitment to daily physical activity! It goes a long way to helping you meet these new Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines.

These new guidelines promote the importance of incorporating movement and activity into daily habits over a 24-hour period. Distributing light physical activity consistently throughout the day and having a good sleep routine are two new additions to the guidelines that you should consider to optimize your health. The new guidelines are as follows:

• Maintain a minimum of 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and do more if you can (e.g. brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, cross-country skiing).
• Complete at least two sessions of muscle strengthening per week aimed at larger muscles.
• Add balance exercises that challenge you.
• Limit your sedentary time to eight hours or less per day.
  • Aim for less than three hours of recreational screen time.
  • Replace sedentary activities by introducing frequent light physical activities that are spread out over the day.
  • Break up sitting periods by standing more, as often as possible.
• Adopt better sleep habits.
  • Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
  • Maintain consistent bedtimes and wake-up times.

The bottom line: These guidelines couldn’t come at a better time as we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have found that Canadians have done quite well at maintaining their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels, but they have significantly reduced the amount of low- intensity physical activity they were doing prior to the pandemic. This loss of low-intensity activity adds up over time and can have a negative impact on many people’s health.

Want to optimize your well-being? Examine if there are any gaps between your current lifestyle and these new guidelines. If there are, get moving! Even small activity changes will pay dividends to your health. If there are no gaps, keep up the good work and continue to make small activity changes to reap even more benefits. Moving more, sitting less and sleeping better will help to Make Your Whole Day Matter!

Lucie Laferrière, physiotherapist, M.H.A
Lucie Laferrière is the injury prevention specialist at the Directorate Forces Health Protection and she works with scientific evidence to provide advice. As part of the Strengthening the Forces team, she works on injury prevention and promoting active living.

Strengthening the Forces is CAF/DND’s healthy lifestyles promotion program providing expert information, skills and tools for promoting and improving CAF members’ health and well-being.