Physical activity

But a lot of kids would rather play a game on a computer than play an actual game like kicking the football or playing cricket.

Our next guest is Senior Advisor on Physical Activity at the National Heart Foundation, Elizabeth Kalia.

Good morning.

Good morning.

But should we make it compulsory in the same way that English is compulsory at VCE level?

Oh, yeah, this is what we've got in the fourth edition of the Blueprint for an Active Australia.

We've got a brand-new chapter, which we call Action Areas on Education and Childcare, to look at how we try and mandate physical activity as part of daily curriculum all the way through schooling, even into tertiary education.

How do we get more kids being active The World Health Organization put out a report last week that our kids, our teenagers, report zero days of physical activity across globally, like 25%.

I'm a former professional ballerina with a PhD in biomechanics.

And today we're taking a closer look at ballet as a form of physical activity and asking a bigger question.

Is ballet healthy? We'll explore the physical benefits, the effects on mental and cognitive health, some of the potential risks, and why the answer may depend on how you dance, how much you dance, and the environment in which you train.

And importantly, we'll talk about what makes ballet more likely to support your health rather than compromise it.

So let's begin with something that might seem a bit obvious.

Ballet is a physical activity, but that doesn't necessarily mean every ballet class provides the same health benefits as every other form of exercise.

During a ballet class, you might perform repeated rises onto demi pointe, balance on one leg, move through large ranges of motion, jump, land, and hold challenging positions.

You're coordinating your arms, legs, trunk, and head while responding to music and maintaining a specific movement pattern.

There's an Australian study that followed women who were 50 to 55 at the start right through their midlife years.

The women who kept up the physical activity guidelines the whole way through had about half the risk of dying early compared with the women who stayed inactive.

And the same pattern showed up for deaths from heart disease.

The key word there is kept up.

It wasn't about one good year.

It was about staying active through this stage of life year after year.

And if you're wondering what the guidelines are, Australia's physical activity guidelines suggest building up to between two and a half and five hours of moderate activity across the week, plus strength work on at least two days.

If you're not doing much at the moment, that can sound like a lot, but the guidelines also say any physical activity is better than none.

Well, I would contest that view actually, Mike.

I mean, my research is essentially looking at the role of physical activity as a utility, as a mechanism for creating the conditions for not only movement, but how to learn, how to learn differently through active learning, through experiential learning.

Recognizing that if we can do that, we can better connect with communities and we can create a more flourishing society.

So the reason why I would maybe contest that view is that The origins of universities have been really founded on the town and gown.

And more broadly, universities are situated within a wider ecosystem of community life, regional life.

So what I'm fascinated by, and I think you're curious too, which brings us to this pod today, is about where do universities sit within the wider ecosystem? And if we think about Churchman and Ackhoff, we can start to think about, well, how do universities see themselves in their worldly view of that system? And, you know, what are the perceived problems and how can universities provide solutions in regards to training, qualifications, CPD, but fundamentally education? jobs and also health and prosperity in society, because beyond degrees and qualifications and jobs, universities, I think, have a tremendous role in enhancing the health and the wellbeing of society.

You know, if you think about the untapped assets and resources that universities have, whether it's clinical excellence, whether it's research excellence, whether it's about access to facilities, world-class leading facilities for sport, physical activity, research, simulation.

I believe that there are many assets there that communities can benefit from if they have greater access to participate.

So it is truly never too late to look at.

Yeah, to look at dietary quality and the same for things like physical activity and all of those different kinds of things.

You're listening to Southern Remedy Healthy and Fit on MPB Think Radio.

I'm Josie Bidwell, nurse practitioner at UMMC.

And, you know, that's why when Kevin Farrell retired, we did a whole show on, you know, aging well in retirement.

Kevin is playing tennis right now.

I know he is because I harp on him all the time that you have to maintain those physical activity patterns.

That you had while you had somewhere to go every day, because if not, you will you will lose it.

There has been some look into some hiking programs as well, too, in the late stage recovery.

But actually some of the best evidence was just on physical activity behavior change interventions in terms of coaching people how to increase their overall physical activity using step counts and metrics such as smart watches or things to track.

their actual activity levels and using SMART goals and holding patients accountable to actually kind of increase their physical activity.

A lot of our patients come into surgery with the goal of returning to some sort of activity or participation that they hadn't been able to do because of their knee osteoarthritis.

And sadly, a lot of people don't.

We know that people prior to knee surgery are pretty inactive and that activity level typically doesn't change postoperatively because you know, the more we learn about physical activity, generally it's a behavior.

And so you need to learn to kind of do some motivational interviewing, finding out what are the barriers, facilitators, and really work on behavior change, which takes longer and different strategies than I think that we're typically you know, most accustomed to using as physical therapists.

I think that was kind of the more surprising part of this physical activity recommendation was the evidence supporting use of that accountability and tracking of, you know, how people are actually behaving in the real world.

Kids are not getting outside and playing as much anymore.

There are a lot more screens around, a lot of things that discourage actual movement and physical activity.

How strong is the connection between obesity and metabolic health and colorectal cancer?

They have definitely shown an association with it.

You're probably not doing the activity, which we know helps, but you're also eating food that is probably not the best for you and contains a lot of ultra high processed foods that are in there.

Yeah.

One of the things that I think about also as it relates to physical activity is sitting a lot, because I know I have seen that that is one of the things that potentially could be a link.

I think the CDC kind of points to sitting a lot.