Many people when they hear the words ‘too little exercise’ immediately think of overweight and fat people. This idea can partly be justified, but using the term overweight alone really underestimates this large-scale problem. Exercise has a particularly significant impact on your physical and psychological health. What exactly is health? Exercise ensures that you stay fit. Unfortunately, it seems as if the Netherlands is not taking this problem seriously enough. The percentage of people who do not exercise enough is the highest, especially in big cities. This article contains the necessary information about insufficient exercise.

Health

The World Health Organization definition is: health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or other physical infirmity.The definition of mijn-woordenboek.nl is: State of optimal well-being in mental, physical and social terms; Condition of an individual or of a community free from pathogenic constitutions, exhibiting reasonable resistance to disease and living in a healthy environment.The definitions are very similar. The remaining descriptions of the concept also all ultimately amount to the same thing. It is important to know that the two definitions above are the most complete. People often forget that health refers purely to physical condition, but mental well-being also plays a role in the level of human health.

Insufficient exercise: For whom and what is the extent?

As can be read in the previous chapter, the number of people who exercise too little is certainly on the high side. There is therefore plenty of reason to worry about this social problem. The ultimate goal is to tackle this problem efficiently. The problem does not only concern people who are overweight because they exercise too little, but also certainly applies to people who simply do not exercise. Sport and exercise not only have a positive effect on your weight and fat percentage, they also influence the level of fitness of a person. Some people just don’t like sports and therefore don’t exercise enough.

Numbers

Therefore, the problem also concerns these people. Figures from Statistics Netherlands have shown that almost 8 million Dutch people do not exercise enough. Lack of or little exercise in itself is not the reason to solve this problem. There is often more to it than just no or little exercise. As soon as people exercise too little and smoke, drink or use drugs, the problem only becomes a real problem.One in ten Dutch people is overweight and consumes excessive alcohol and as many as one in four Dutch people smoke heavily. Since the Netherlands has almost 17 million inhabitants in 2012, this means that there are more than 1.6 million overweight people, 1.6 million who drink too much and more than 4 million smokers. If you look at these statistics, you can conclude that the problem is immense because in addition to the aforementioned figures, it also appears that one in two Dutch people does not exercise enough.If one does a simple calculation, there are approximately 8 million people who exercise too little, plus more than 7 million people who are overweight, smoke and/or drink. All these people should be approached and informed about the fact that exercise is very important to have a healthy life.

What are experiences in previous interventions to solve this?

Insufficient exercise has always been a much-discussed topic in recent years. There is also a lot of fuss about the consequences of the problem. The problem is still not taken seriously enough. You often see that people only recognize the problem when they have to deal with consequences such as obesity. Many interventions have been applied in the past. The NASB (National Action Plan for Sport and Exercise) in particular was very active in this. The NASB encourages the use of promising interventions to get and keep more people moving. Promising interventions are existing sports and exercise interventions that are known to have a positive effect on exercise behavior, especially among inactive people. The NASB has drawn up an overview in the year 2009/2010 with many interventions that have proven to be ‘successful’ and ‘easily applicable’ to solve the problem. The interventions are aimed at many specific target groups, such as special programs for immigrant women, for example Be InterACTive, which sports program is comparable to Start 2 Run for immigrant women. The sports program has quickly become a real success.

Effects of sports program Be InterACTive

• Participants started exercising more.
• Participants have gained more self-confidence.
• 95% intend to continue exercising.
• 95% experienced the training as enjoyable and are very satisfied.

ACTOR

Another striking intervention is ACTOR. The objective of ACTOR is to reduce loneliness and improve loneliness-related characteristics in seniors. This is done through exercise and social activation, with empowerment central. ACTOR focuses on seniors aged 50 and over who feel lonely to a greater or lesser extent. The method is aimed at both independently living seniors and seniors in nursing homes. Some effects of ACTOR:

• 83% of participants aged 50-65 have started participating in new structural exercise activities.
• Statistically significant progress on general health perception.
• Clear progress measured in physical functioning and vitality.
• Clear progress in independent functioning (ADL).
• 75% to 86% of participants indicate that they feel less lonely by participating in ACTOR.
• 40% to 86% of participants indicate that they have made new acquaintances or friends within the ACTOR group.

In addition to the two interventions mentioned, many more can be found in the NASB overview.