Who says so? None other than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
But here's the pathetic news: Even when such commonplace activities as sweeping the floor and playing with the kids are counted as exercise, fully 55 percent of American adults still do not get the recommended minimum amount, which is 30 minutes a day, four times a week.
The CDC decided to count everyday activities as fitness activities because it was believed that only counting intense exercise--jogging, lifting weights, swimming--was not an accurate measure. Under the old measurement, 74 percent of adults didn't get enough exercise. When we count tossing that Frisbee or sweeping the crumbs off the kitchen floor, the number drops to 55 percent who don't exercise enough. But still! That's more than half of us. The problem isn't with the measurement. The problem is with us. We love to sit on our couches.
"It's surprising," Harold Kohl of the CDC admitted AP. "There's still more than one out of two Americans who are not active at a level we think promotes health. From an overall health standpoint, we've really got to move the needle substantially from where it is right now."
The CDC determined that 26 percent of adults do no significant exercise--ever. Kentucky has the lowest percentage of people who exercise 30 minutes a day, four times a week, while Wyoming has the most.
These activities count as moderate exercise:
- Walking at a brisk pace
- Ballroom dancing
- Playing in a marching band
- Shoveling snow
- Scrubbing floors
- Washing windows
- Vacuuming
- Tossing a Frisbee
- Playing with the kids
- Raking the lawn
- Waiting tables
- Making photocopies
- Playing video games
- Coloring
- Sitting in a whirlpool bath
- Floating
- Purposeless wandering
- Shooting a pistol
- Yachting
- Fishing while seated
- Light office work
