It’s an ‘Active Advent Calendar’!

It may be a little too late for this year’s advent, but this study, which looked at a novel way of trying to increase activity in more sedentary people, is a fab idea and demonstrated some promise in it’s concept!

We all know that being active is good for us in so many ways. But only about 60% of adults meet the recommended level of participation
in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; with these estimates reduce greatly to around 25% when participation in muscle strengthening activity too. The Christmas period is a time with additional holiday days, social occasions, overconsumption of festive foods and drinks and is also accompanied by a decrease in physical activity and an increase in more sedentary behaviours such as sitting and screen time.

So, what did the study involve?

By harnessing the potential enthusiasm to be involved in a festive themed activity, the study comprised of 24 different exercises being sent to participants by email on each day of advent. The exercises had 3 choices of levels, Easy Elf, Moderate Mrs Claus and Strenuous Santa, depending on your fitness levels.

Time spent doing moderate-to-vigorous activity and strengthening activity, time spent being sedentary and enjoyment and adherence to the exercises, were all measured. The results found that by week 3, those that were in the exercise group were doing more moderate-to-vigorous activity and spending less time being sedentary.

The researchers concluded that:

• The public are interested to engage in a Christmas themed physical activity intervention during Advent
• A Christmas themed physical activity intervention during Advent showed promise for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time among inactive adults
• The Active Advent intervention was enjoyed by participants, showing that the public would welcome public health campaigns to help them to be more physically active and less sedentary at Christmas