Physical activity – how much you need, and starting from nothing

The WHO guidance South Africa follows asks adults for at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle-strengthening work on two or more days.

Moderate means you can talk but not sing — brisk walking, cycling on the flat, gardening, cleaning, dancing. Vigorous means you cannot say more than a few words at a time. 150 minutes a week is about 22 minutes a day, or half an hour five days a week.

Activity is not mainly about weight, and framing it that way is why many people give up. Its effects are broader and show up faster than the scale does.

• Lowers blood pressure, often measurably within weeks.
• Improves how the body handles blood sugar, which matters for anyone with diabetes or at risk of it.
• Reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression — one of the better-supported non-medical treatments there is.
• Improves sleep quality.
• Maintains muscle and bone, which is what keeps older adults independent and prevents falls.
• Reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and several cancers.

1. 1Pick something you can do from your own front door. A plan that requires transport or a fee is a plan with an extra step to fail at.
2. 2Start at ten minutes. Not thirty. Ten minutes you actually do beats thirty you skip.
3. 3Attach it to something that already happens — after breakfast, before the taxi, straight after work — rather than to a free moment, which never arrives.
4. 4Add about ten percent a week. Most injuries in new exercisers come from doing too much in the second week, not the first.
5. 5Count everything: walking to the shops, stairs, cleaning, carrying, playing with children. It all counts, and counting it is motivating rather than dishonest.
6. 6Add strength twice a week once walking is a habit — body-weight squats, wall press-ups, carrying shopping, standing up from a chair without hands.

Safety and daylight are real constraints in much of South Africa, and pretending otherwise produces advice nobody can follow.

• Walk with someone, or with a group — safer, and far more likely to continue.
• Use daylight hours, and vary the route and time if that is a concern where you are.
• Indoors works: stairs, marching on the spot, a workout on your phone, dancing to music.
• Shopping centres, community halls and school grounds are often the safest walkable spaces nearby.
• In summer, go early or late — the middle of the day is both the hottest and the strongest sun.

Most people do not need clearance to start walking. Some should speak to a clinician before starting anything more demanding.