Optimizing Health through Moderate Exercise
In my massage practice, I work with many bodies of all ages in various states of health, tonicity, and mobility. For years I observed how healthy and active aging clientele seemed to ditch running, tennis, and sensationalist workout classes for walking, yoga, swimming, and pilates, while maintaining their weight and cardiovascular health. My curiosity was piqued as to what makes these gentler exercises so much more sustainable for lifelong fitness than high intensity approaches. As a runner who experienced patellar tendonitis earlier this year after a half marathon, I knew my approach made me more vulnerable to injury, but it felt vital to my fitness that I push the upper limits of my heart rate for effective exercise. So then why, when I replaced my morning runs with a walking commute in the wake of my injury, did both my blood pressure and my weight go down?
Injuries are so common in rigorous exercises that their names are eponymous: runner’s knee, tennis elbow. Rapid movements and heavy impacts tearing ligaments, dislocating shoulders, and straining muscles keep me in business. But looking even deeper into the body, high intensity activity is not always optimal over moderate activity, and can even be damaging to our health in unexpected structures of the body such as the lymphatic system, which is responsible for our immune function. A 2020 study found that intense exercise “can lead, in general, to higher levels of inflammatory mediators, and thus might increase the risk of injury and chronic inflammation. In contrast, moderate exercise or vigorous exercise with appropriate resting periods can achieve maximum benefit”. A 2022 study concluded that, while vigorous exercise had no effect on the airway inflammation of its asthmatic subjects, moderate exercise provided a measurable anti-inflammatory response.
This is in no way an indictment of rigorous exercise, both moderate and vigorous exercise improve cardiovascular health. There is no objectively perfect approach to wellness, and the experience of joy is so vital to our wellbeing that I would never suggest a client quit their favorite sport or skip a night out dancing. Intense exercise is far, far better for you than no exercise at all, and the inflammatory effects of high-intensity exercise (which, notably, are also experienced during deep-tissue massage) can be mitigated by post-exercise exposure to cold water at or below 59 degrees Fahrenheit. The gift of this information is that, for those who are prone to injury, looking to adapt their fitness routine to optimize health, or simply dislike the experiences associated with intense exercise, fitness is still entirely accessible in an enjoyable way. Walking, hiking, gentle cycling, and more, in combination with strength training and stretching, can satisfy the requirements of an active lifestyle.
Moderate exercise is defined as fifty to seventy percent of your maximum heart rate, which can be determined by subtracting your age from 220. When in this state, you should still be able to talk and maintain your breath through your nose. Activities like brisk walking and swimming usually are sufficient to achieve a moderate state of exercise. Self-developed practices like the viral “Hot Girl Walk”, which combines 10,000 step walks with mindfulness, leave room for creativity and subjectivity.
Moderate exercise is also sustainable in its lower demands of the body, meaning you can do it for longer — and you’d need to, as the US department of Health and Human Services recommends that you get twice as much moderate exercise as rigorous for a comparable cardiovascular effect, with a minimum of 150 minutes. The guide also states that “additional health benefits are gained by engaging in physical activity beyond the equivalent of 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week”. In my practice, I recommend 630 minutes weekly for clients whose health allows this, with the total energy expenditure spread broadly roughly across the week, or about 90 minutes a day.
This number may sound high, but it’s less than just 10% of your waking hours, assuming an 8 hour sleep schedule, and can be achieved in combination with your stretching and strength training practices. It is also important to remember the accessibility of moderate exercise for most people in ways that intense exercise is not, and that with some intentional actions we can insert completely free aerobics into our day to day lives. You can exercise at work with a walking treadmill or parking far from your office, you can exercise in your social life by cycling or going to a museum with a friend, you can exercise with your family by playing with your children and walking your dog. Most cell phones automatically track your steps, and wearable heart rate monitors can help you keep track of your active time.
The most important thing that I stress to clients is that moderate exercise for aerobic fitness is highly achievable as it is less demanding of the body and can be adapted to complement our personal and professional schedules to increase our overall weekly energy expenditure. Moving away from a sedentary lifestyle is vital to extending our lifespans, and replacing intense exercise with more frequent, but less zealous, movement may serve to fine tune our health. Aerobic fitness doesn’t have to look like a morning run followed by a day at a desk.