Chapter 3

Lecture Notes

This next slide is a visual designed to help Americans meet physical activity recommendations, and it's called the MyActivity Pyramid. It's modeled after the original food pyramid, which has now been replaced by a MyPlate, but I think most of us are familiar with the pyramid still. And really, people should work up this pyramid. So you should start at the very bottom, with your lifestyle physical activity, and it kind of is the base of everything you do, and so these are activities that you should do every day, things similar to yard work or household chores, just easy walking, light activities that are incorporated throughout your day. And people should work their way up the pyramid, so if somebody's inactive, they can really start with those lifestyle activities at the bottom, and then work their way up the pyramid. The middle levels of the pyramid highlight the aerobic activity and strengthening and conditioning and flexibility activities that are recommended, and it gives some sample activities that you could participate in, such as brisk walking, jogging, swimming, yoga is given as a flexibility activity, and strength and weight training. At the very top of the pyramid, it is very small, and it represents inactivity, things that we should do very little: sitting behaviors, sedentary behaviors, being on the computer, watching TV, all of these sedentary behaviors are things we want to try to avoid.