Today’s Dietitian – August 2019

duration for physical activity benefits in 2018, fitness profes-
sionals have been counseling clients that “anything is better
than nothing” and to move more, even if only for a minute, for
many years. Aerobic capacity and strength can be improved
only with gradual increases in intensity—but those who are
inactive need to start small before progressing to longer
exercise sessions. However, this gradual progression to
improved fitness also applies to HIIPA.
In addition, some individuals may never progress to
planned exercise. In fact, planned exercise may intimidate
or not interest many people. Now that research supports
that incidental physical activity can provide health benefits,
encouraging clients to engage in HIIPA at home may be a
more successful strategy to improve health than recommend-
ing they go to a gym or plan home workouts. Examples of
HIIPA include the following:

• When walking somewhere around the house or on an
  errand, walk fast enough (including longer strides and
  pumping arms) to increase heart and breathing rate. Park
  farther away from stores and errand locations to increase
  the duration and intensity of HIIPA.


• Turn outdoor chores such as gardening, sweeping, and
  raking into a HIIPA session by periodically speeding up
  movements for at least 10 seconds. Gradually increase the
  length of time of more intense movements to 30 seconds or
  a minute at a time.
  
  
  • Choose to take the stairs instead of elevators or escala-
    tors and try to increase stepping speed for several steps at
    a time.
  
  
  • Instead of watching children and pets play, move with them,
    playing chase or doing squats to pick up toys or play games.
  
  
  • Try to add short bursts of “speed cleaning” while mopping,
    vacuuming, dusting, etc.
  
  
  
  

The goal should be to increase intensity enough to be

breathing rapidly—”huffing and puffing”—for very brief inter-

vals. Wearing a fitness tracking or heart rate monitoring

device may help some clients with daily HIIPA sessions and

motivation. As clients increase their fitness with HIIPA, inter-

est in progressing to planned exercise also may increase.

The researchers promoting HIIPA hope that updated

guidelines and their research will boost public health and

primary care initiatives to get sedentary individuals moving

to improve overall health outcomes. New research on mea-

suring the potential health improvements associated with

HIIPA is ongoing.^2

— Jennifer Van Pelt, MA, is a certified group fitness instructor

and health care researcher in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area.

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