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Less than half of mothers do enough exercise, study finds

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Studies show that less than half of mothers get enough exercise, and mothers with young children exercise the least.

  • Experts say efforts should be made to help mothers perform high-intensity activities
  • Researchers from Cambridge and Southampton analyzed data from 848 women.
  • Women with school-age children did about 26m of physical activity each day
  • If you have children under the age of 4, we manage about 18m per day

By Mailonline Health Reporter

Release: | | Has been updated:

Studies show that less than half of mothers get enough exercise.

And those who have the youngest children do the least.

Experts today said efforts should be made to enable mothers to participate in high-intensity physical activity.

Studies show that less than half of mothers get enough exercise.And those with the youngest children do the bare minimum

Studies show that less than half of mothers get enough exercise.And those with the youngest children do the bare minimum

Rachel Simpson, a doctoral student in the Medical Research Council’s Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said, “There are obvious short- and long-term benefits of doing more physical activity, especially when heart rate increases. There are advantages.

“But the demands of being a mother can make finding time difficult.

“We need to look at ways to not only encourage mothers, but make it as easy as possible for busy mothers, especially mothers with young children, to increase the amount of higher-intensity physical activity.”

Physical activity is associated with a wide range of health benefits, from lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease to maintaining a healthy weight and improving mental health.

A team of researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton analyzed data from 848 women aged 20 to 32 who were recruited between 1998 and 2002 and followed for several years.

They were given an accelerometer to assess their activity level.

Women with school-age children performed approximately 26 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily, while women with children 4 years and younger managed approximately 18 minutes per day.

Mothers with two or more children, on the other hand, could only do about 21 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day.

In contrast, however, mothers with multiple children under the age of five were found to engage in more light-intensity activities than mothers with school-age children.

NHS advice states that adults should engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week.

Professor Keith Godfrey, MRC Center for Life Course Epidemiology and NIHR Southampton Center for Biomedical Research, said: We quantified the significance of this reduction.

“Local government planners and leisure facilities providers need to do more to support mothers to engage in physical activity.”

The results were published in the journal Plos One.

exercise required

To stay healthy, adults between the ages of 19 and 64 should strive to be active every day and:

  • Do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, such as cycling or brisk walking
  • Strength training at least 2 days per week that works all major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms)

or:

  • 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise each week, such as running or playing a singles tennis match;
  • Strength training at least 2 days per week that works all major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms)

or:

  • A combination of moderate and vigorous aerobic exercise weekly – e.g., two 30-minute runs and a brisk 30-minute walk is equivalent to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise,
  • Strength training at least 2 days per week that works all major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms)

A good rule is that one minute of vigorous activity has the same health benefits as two minutes of moderate activity.

One way to get the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week is to do 30 minutes on 5 days each week.

All adults should divide long periods of sitting with light activity.

Source: NHS

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