Physical Activity Levels Around the World
A recent meta-analytic research study pooled 358 surveys from 168 countries to analyze the physical activity levels of 1.9 million persons (Guthold et al., 2018). Findings showed that a large proportion of people had low levels of physical activity in both low-income and high-income countries. The study found that women are slightly less active than men. In general, fewer females than males meet the physical activity levels needed to maintain good health. Here are the percentages of low activity levels by age and gender:
Girls – 85 percent low activity
Boys – 78 percent low activity
Women – 32 percent low activity
Men – 23 percent low activity
In other words, most humans on this planet are not as physically active as they should be and there are gender differences in activity vs. indolence levels especially in childhood. Worse, the data indicate that the World Health Organization’s drive to increase physical activity levels worldwide by 10 percent by 2025 is doomed to failure.
And The Problem of Low Motor Competence in Children
Studies over the past several decades have discovered that basic motor competence in children has been gradually deteriorating due to increasingly sedentary lifestyles and less physical activity. Motor competence is also correlated with weight status and developmental delay. Those who are high in motor competence have less weight on their physiques and are quicker in meeting developmental milestones. Several factors mitigate developing childhood motor incompetence including having a yard at home, high-quality exercise facilities nearby, and parental encouragement (Van Kann et al., 2022).
Handgrip Strength and Health Prospects
Related to these issues are findings from several other studies looking at the relationship between handgrip strength and health. These found links between low strength, gender differences and poor health prospects. A large Chinese study of 493,774 subjects drawn from the UK Biobank Study database looked for a relationship between handgrip strength and cardiac morbidity. It found a link in that persons with low handgrip strength were more susceptible to heart disease. In other words, handgrip strength is a predictor of cardiometabolic disease (Lu et al., 2022).
Building “The Physical Self-Concept”
To quote a famous saying by the Roman poet, Juvenal (55-138 AD): “Anima sana in corpore sano.” Which translates into “A sound mind in a sound body.” Training the body in any activity begins with the mind. Research evidence suggests that physical activity as a lifestyle begins with a person’s own cognitive conception of their physical self. This is pretty much the same idea as body schema/image. If you think of and see yourself as a person who enjoys and values physical activity, then you will naturally manifest that.
Closing Thoughts
The reason to take notice here is the positive presence of basic physical strength to present and future states of health.
People around the world are pursuing increasingly sedentary lifestyles. This is doubtlessly attributable to the increased presence of “knowledge-based” businesses and the influx of digital technology as well as having physically-indolent parents. I do not have the entire picture in my grasp, but I suspect the World Health Organization has a good part of it, otherwise it would not be making a drive to increase physical activity on a global basis.
My thoughts revolve around the obvious which is physical lifestyles are encourage, supported, and maintained within families and cultures that advocate for it. Otherwise, it ain’t happening.
Next comes an item of great interest and importance in the physical self-concept, which to me is just an aspect, albeit an essential one, of body image. And, body image is based on body schema which is the actual experience of the body and its actions. To activate the body schema, you have to move. This then impacts the body image which then changes behavior. Young people with strong beliefs about their physical ability and importance of exercise are more likely to be physical active compared to those with poor physical self-concepts (Babic et al., 2014).
Finally, the finding that children in general—and specifically that girls and women are less physically active than boys and men—is deeply troubling. Obviously, we’ve lost sight of the extraordinary importance of physical activity to fuel childhood growth and development. That must be addressed in the school systems which seem to be less willing to support athletic and sports programming. Lastly, regarding girls and women, it may be that gender-based intervention methods are needed to instill the values and enjoyment of physical activities that suit the feminine bodymind.
Once again, if you want to change your life, you need to change your mind and, if you want to change your body, then you need to develop body schema as well.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Babic, M., Morgan, P., Plotnikooff, R., Lonsdale, C., White, R., & Luhans, D. (2014). Physical activity and physical self-concept in youth: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine 44, p. 1589-1601.
Guthold, R., Stevens, G., Riley, L., & Bull, F. (2018). Worldwide trends in insufficient physical activity from 2001 to 2016: A pooled analysis of 358 population-based surveys with 1.9 million participants. The Lancet 6, p. 1077- 1086.
Lu, Y., Li, G., Ferrari, P., Freisling, H., Qiao, Y., Wu, L., Shao, L., & Ke, C. (2022). Associations of handgrip strength with morbidity and all-cause mortality of cardiometabolic multimorbidity. BMC Medicine 20(191), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02389-y.
Van Kann, D., Koolwijk, P. de Kok, T., Vos, S., de Vries, S., Mombarg, R., van Aart, I., Savelsbergh, G., Hoeboer, J., Remmers, T. (2022). Applying an ecosystem approach to explore modifiable factors related to the risk for low motor competence in young children. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 25, p. 890-895.
Revised on 05-06-24.