Exercise will increase the good cholesterol circulating in your body and provide health spin-offs beyond just lowering your total cholesterol.
Weight has a significant impact on your heart health and cholesterol levels. Weight loss alone may lower triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol levels; losing as little as 10% of your weight could drop your cholesterol back to the heart healthy range.
Exercise guidelines for adults
Any type of activity is better than nothing. Adults who include activity as part of their everyday life gain some form of health benefit. Obtain permission from your doctor before starting a new exercise programme, especially if you have a sedentary lifestyle.
For substantial health benefits, include at least 150 minutes (2½ hours) per week of moderate-intensity activity. If time is a factor, you can achieve the same benefits by increasing the intensity and being vigorously active 75 minutes (one hour and 15 minutes) per week.
It’s fine to break your activity into chunks. For example, if your schedule doesn’t allow 30 minutes at the gym, you can include a 10 minute brisk walk during your lunch break to count towards the goal of 150 minutes for the week. However, workout segments less than 10 minutes in length are not as beneficial.
To gain maximum benefit, spread your activity throughout the week. A power workout session at the gym on a Saturday for 2½ hours is not as beneficial as 30 minutes of activity five days per week.
If you want to gain even more health benefits, you can increase your activity to 300 minutes (five hours) per week of moderate intensity activity or 150 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic activity.
Don’t forget strength training! You want to include all major muscle groups on two or more days per week. If muscle mass is not maintained, there will be a decline in your metabolism and you will gain weight, especially as you age.
Activity does not have to be hard or expensive. You can walk your dog, go dancing, climb the stairs at work, mow the lawn and go to the gym. There are many, many options available to get 2½ hours of physical activity every week.
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