Northern Health pushes the importance of physical activity

Now that Spring has arrived, Northern Health once again wants to emphasize the importance of movement and staying healthy.

The cold, dark and snowy Winter months traditionally leave many feeling like they need to hibernate, and thus physical activity levels take a significant drop and increased risks of diabetes, heart disease and obesity become more and more apparent.

Mandy Levesque is the Regional Lead for Physical activity, and she pointed to Canada’s physical activity guidelines:

“For adults we are looking for a 150 minutes of activity a week, and again that’s a week not per day. So if we were actually to break that down that’s just over 20 minutes a day which should be achievable for most people”

Levesque mentioned that children need around 60 minutes of physical activity per day, and says parents and children alike should work to reduce their daily screen time.