Physical activity paradox: providing evidence-based guidance while closing research gaps
One page on PainSci cites Pronk 2024: The physical activity paradox
PainSci commentary on Pronk 2024: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
This British Journal of Sports Medicine editorial summarizes new research on the intriguing physical activity paradox, which is simple: what works at home may hurt at work. Being physically active has major health benefits when it’s on your own terms: “leisure-time physical activity,” or LTPA, is pure goodness.
But the same overall level of activity that’s so beneficial in a personal context can actually backfire when you do it on the job: “occupational physical activity” (OPA) is not a clear health and fitness win for people.
I don’t think many readers will be surprised by this contradiction — okay, probably none at all — but it’s quite interesting to consider how it works. Several ideas have been studied, like these five (at least):
- Low to nil autonomy. It’s harder to make sensible adjustments when it’s not your activity. For instance, how many postal workers have walked much more than they should have or would have for their own fun and fitness goals? Probably all of them.
- Heavy lifting and static and/or awkward postures are routine in many working contexts, often far exceeding anything you’d put up with for fun.
- Inadequate recovery is a big one. Even if OPA was just as healthy at LPTA in every other way, not being able to take a day off when it really counts would probably poison it. (Or even just a well-timed hour of rest.)
- Too little activity for too long. The dose of exercise per hour might small … but it adds up.
- Workers tend to have higher heart rates and … increased inflammation?! Both could have many explanations, but regardless they likely undermine the usual benefits of being active. For instance, exercising while inflamed might actually increase injury risk.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
Physical activity is known to be good for one’s health. On the other hand, physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour are known to be harmful to health. Agreement exists about these general statements; however, emerging research points to a need to be more domain-specific as physical activity conducted during work may be harmful to health.
Most physical activity research is based on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), that is, any form of physical activity undertaken during leisure time, such as exercise. Results support the notion that LTPA promotes cardiovascular health and may increase longevity. However, occupational physical activity (OPA), that is, physical activity undertaken during paid or voluntary work, may have opposing effects on health-related outcomes such as cardiovascular health, long-term sickness absence and mortality. As a result, a phenomenon referred to as the ‘physical activity paradox’ has emerged which refers to the apparent contradiction that LTPA tends to confer positive health outcomes, yet OPA may confer negative effects on health.
This page is part of the PainScience BIBLIOGRAPHY, which contains plain language summaries of thousands of scientific papers & others sources. It’s like a highly specialized blog. A few highlights:
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