WELCOME

Introduction

Asthma

Cancer

Diabetes

Heart disease
and Stroke

Obesity

Nutrition

Physical
Activity

Tobacco
Use

Appendixes

Walk to a
coworker's
desk instead of
e-mailing or calling.

TOP

Keep a pair of comfortable walking shoes
or sneakers in your car
or office.

TOP

TOP

Physical Activity

Regular physical activity throughout a woman’s life is important for maintaining a healthy body, enhancing psychological well-being, and preventing premature death.  Regular physical activity is associated with:

	Lower death rates for women of any age, even when only moderate levels of physical activity are performed.
	Decreased risk of heart disease and stroke, diabetes and its complications, and certain cancers, including colon and breast cancer.
	Prevention and control of high blood pressure.
	Reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety and improved mood.

That’s the good news for women.  The bad news is that women are simply not getting enough regular physical activity.  As the map Proportion of U.S. Women Aged 18 Years and Older Engaging in Recommended Physical Activity shows, only 4 in 10 women are engaging in the recommended levels of physical activity.  Activity decreases with age and is less common among women than men and among those with lower income and less education. 

For women of color, the challenge is even greater:  Rates of physical activity differ by race and ethnicity in a number of ways.  Both personal and cultural values influence the women's physical activity behaviors.¹ One study showed that less-acculturated Mexican American women—measured as those whose preferred language at home was Spanish—were more likely to report leisure-time physical activity than their more acculturated counterparts who preferred language was English.²

Women of color are more likely to lead sedentary lifestyles, never engaging in any vigorous, moderate, or light physical activities for at least 20 minutes.  More than half (55.1 percent) of African American women are physically inactive, compared with 38 percent of white women.  Nearly three out of five (57.2 percent) Hispanic and black non-Hispanic women (55.2) and less than half of Asian and Pacific Islander women (42.6 percent) are sedentary, compared to 36.1 percent of white non-Hispanic women.³ 

Population density is a factor.  Although rural Hispanic women were the most likely to be physically active, only a fifth reported being regularly active.  Nearly 12 percent of urban Hispanic and white women and 8 percent of urban and rural American Indian/Alaska Native women, rural white women, and urban black women reported regularly active lifestyles.  Rural African American women were the least likely to be active.⁴

Women cite three major reasons for problems in trying to increase physical activity:

	Lack of time.
	Lack of access to convenient facilities.
	Lack of safe environments in which to be active.

Child care and monetary costs are frequently cited as barriers to physical activity. What’s a woman to do?  A woman can take action for herself, for her family, for her workplace, for her community.  Helpful resources exist such as Promoting Physical Activity: A Guide for Community Action. 

Effective community strategies include:

	Make community facilities available for physical activity for all people, including on the weekends.
	Create more opportunities for physical activity at work sites.

Effective individual strategies include:

	Reduce time spent watching television and in other sedentary behaviors.
	Adopt the attitude that physical activity can be fun, not work.
	Exercise all at one time or intermittently over the day.
	Consider physical activity in the broadest sense:

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

• Park further from the store and walk.

Look to the future and add variety by trying:

• Flexibility exercise to attain full range of joint motion.

• Strength or resistance exercise.

• Aerobic conditioning.

Physical inactivity contributes to 300,000 preventable deaths a year in the United States. Some 40 percent of deaths in the United States are caused by behavior patterns that could be modified. A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor across the spectrum of preventable diseases that lower the quality of life and kill Americans.

Physical Activity and Physical Fitness: What Is the Difference?

The Steps to a HealthierUS initiative promotes physical activity.  The basic Steps message is that women need to take steps to become active physically and stay active. 

Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in an expenditure of energy.

Physical fitness is a measure of a woman's ability to perform physical activities that require endurance, strength, or flexibility and is determined by a combination of regular activity and genetically inherited ability.

In other words, fitness is good, but physical activity is a must.

Women who have been sedentary should start out slowly and gradually increase the frequency and duration of physical activity.  In the case of walking, for example, the message becomes, “If you