Physical Health

The Five Pillars of Health

1. Physical

2. Mental

3. Spiritual

4. Social

5. Financial

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”

— John F. Kennedy

As physiotherapists, physical health is what we examine “objectively” and what the majority of clients think about when they come in for an assessment. Our practitioners at Titan Project delve into the other elements with comfort, recognizing the complex nature of health, but cannot ignore the very real impact that our physical well-being has on feeling “healthy.”

By definition, physical health is the well-being of the body and the proper functioning of the organism of individuals. As complex organisms we can think of this as being able to live comfortably and being able to perform our necessary activities of daily living. The problem, however, is that, in many cases, our lives today don’t challenge our physical body enough to maintain optimal health.

“Exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind.”

— Nelson Mandela

CSEP (Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology) has put out 24-hour Movement Guidelines for each age group (see additional details on their website here). It is associated with the following health benefits:

• a lower risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, several cancers, anxiety, depression, dementia, weight gain, adverse blood lipid profile; and

• improved bone health, cognition, quality of life and physical function.

Guidelines

For health benefits, adults aged 18-64 years should be physically active each day, minimize sedentary behaviour, and achieve sufficient sleep.

A healthy 24 hours includes:

Performing a variety of types and intensities of physical activity, which includes

• Moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activities such that there is an accumulation of at least 150 minutes per week

• Muscle strengthening activities using major muscle groups at least twice a week

• Several hours of light physical activities, including standing

Limiting sedentary time to 8 hours or less, which includes

• No more than 3 hours of recreational screen time, and

• Breaking up long periods of sitting as often as possible

Getting 7 to 9 hours of good-quality sleep on a regular basis, with consistent bed and wake-up times

Replacing sedentary behaviour with additional physical activity and trading light physical activity for more moderate to vigorous physical activity, while preserving sufficient sleep, can provide greater health benefits.

Progressing towards any of these targets will result in some health benefits.

If we glance at the WHO’s top ten causes of death below, it is impossible to ignore the significant role that our physical health plays.

Not only is our physical conditioning an important factor but our nutrition as well. If we address these two elements we are actively reducing the risk of the majority of the top ten causes of death.

But we know this.

Why, then, don’t we all stay physically active and eat well?

It’s complicated. And it highlights why the Pillars of Health are a better way to understand and discuss our health and wellness. More often than not, it is challenges with our Pillars that lead to issues with our physical health. Maybe we are too burnt out from work; maybe we use food as a way to deal with stress? As highlighted above, our physical health is critically important. And oftentimes, it is our physical health that can spear-head our wellness in other areas, giving us the confidence to excel in the other parts of our life.

There have been numerous investigations on the human condition as it relates to motivation, willpower, and delayed gratification. We know maintaining an active lifestyle that is supported by a good diet is challenging for people. The rewards aren’t immediate (while the taste of ice cream is) and it needs to be something that is continued throughout our lives: we don’t simply fill a quota and earn the right to sit back and relax and eat/drink what we want. Our lifestyles have become increasingly hedonistic (i.e. pleasure-based), with the pressure to make more money, eat better food, travel more:  all so we can “enjoy” our lives more. But what if the purpose is not to enjoy life more?

Strangely, there seems to be a tendency to return to a “base level” regardless of the amount of pleasure we try to add in, giving suggestion to focus on developing those things that really matter, such as our physical health, our social, and mental/spiritual health. (If you are interested in reading more on this, explore the work by Brickman and Campbell, who coined the term “Hedonic Treadmill” in their article, "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" [1971], describing the tendency of people to keep a fairly stable baseline level of happiness despite external events and fluctuations in demographic circumstances).

While objectively straight-forward, our physical health is a complex Pillar that most of us struggle with. There are obvious benefits that we are aware of. Don’t aim for perfection. Be kind to yourself and remember that even some change has benefits. For a little motivation, read Mark’s blog post, No Zero Days.

Thanks for reading. Next week we will continue our exploration on our Pillars of Health.

-Tyler