If you need a boost to reach your health and fitness goals, you may want to consider breaking up with your partner in a loving way. A new study shows that older couples who exercise together are less active overall than those who exercise separately.
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore used fitness trackers to record data such as daily steps and calories burned for 12 weeks, and analyzed the numbers in 240 people aged 54 to 72. did.
“Those who participated with a spouse had lower mean and median step counts and completed 10,000 and 15,000 fewer steps per day than those who participated alone.” write The researchers state in their published paper:
Science is not so clear on this issue. Previous research has shown that exercising with others makes the activity more enjoyable and adds accountability and extra motivation to your exercise plan.
In the current study, the research team found that the lower activity levels of couples who exercise together are not due to people taking it easy or cutting their activity short, but because of established habits and routines and how people exercise on their own. This suggests that it is related to being set in one's way of doing things.
In other words, setting a goal of 10,000 steps a day is easier for one person than it is for two people. If it's just the two of you, you'll both need to find time in her day to ensure you're motivated to put the activity on the agenda.
“For these couples, changing their daily habits may require making significant changes to the routines and routines that have become ingrained in their family life after years of marriage.” To tell Sapphire Lin is a health scientist at NTU.
“This can make it difficult to incorporate exercise and lead to decreased motivation.”
We know that the world's population generally continues to age. It's also well established how important exercise is to staying healthy. This is especially true in later life when the body declines.
It is clear that our bodies have a finite lifespan and that physical and mental problems increase as we age, but there is no evidence that staying active can help slow some of this decline. We have a lot.
The study provides interesting insights into the best ways for older adults to stay healthy, while also revealing that people who are given personalized feedback from a fitness tracker app end up being more active. did.
“Our research shows that older people looking to incorporate exercise into their lifestyles find it more effective to focus on changing their own habits, rather than exercising as a couple and trying to force changes on their partner. It could be.” To tell Hayashi-san.
This study International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.
