Reframing the Physical Inactivity Crisis

Physiologist by training and a health educator , entrepreneur and advocate by trade , and I'm fascinated by a phenomena I call the wellness paradox . This paradox , as I view it , is the trust , interaction and communication gap that exists between exercise professionals and our medical community .

This podcast is all about closing off that gap by disseminating the latest , most evidence-based and most engaging information in the health sciences . And as a friendly reminder , in the year of 2025 , I'll be chronicling my work as the president of the Physical Activity Alliance .

The Physical Activity Alliance is the nation's largest group of physical activity stakeholders that focus on policy and systems change to make the active choice the easy choice in our society . And in episode 140 , I want to talk about something I've been putting a lot of thought into lately , and we'll broadly call this the physical inactivity crisis .

Broadly call this the physical inactivity crisis , and I'll walk you through my thesis initially , for why we're talking about this , and then I hope to give some action steps to all of you that are listening , and one of the things that I think will come out of this episode is the very clear understanding that I don't believe I or the Physical Activity Alliance or

many people in our space have the answer to the question that I'm about to pose , but I'm hoping that by putting it out there into the ether , many of you will start thinking about it , reflecting on it and then doing something about it , and I've titled this episode the Physical Inactivity Crisis because I think that is the one thing that we need in the physical

activity space to really elevate the work we are doing . The reality is that physical inactivity right now broadly is not viewed as a crisis . We know things that are crises in our society .

They are attention grabbing , they grab the headlines and because of that , they grab share of mind , but also share of market and share of wallet in terms of fundraising , and I think many of you that are listening to this understand the very real challenges that we face in addressing physical activity issues in our country simply because of a lack of funding , and

we certainly know , given the new administration's priorities in Washington , that all funding opportunities are going to be scrutinized even more greatly than what they've been to date .

So when we think about making physical inactivity into a crisis , not only do I think it's a good marketing message , but I think it's an economic imperative for pushing forward the great work that we're doing across this country . Now I say this thinking about other ventures and other areas that nonprofits and science work in that are viewed as a crisis .

Cancer and oncology , it happens to be an area that I feel is viewed as a crisis . Obesity is viewed as a crisis .

I think , in the mind of policymakers , the scientific community and the public writ large , they look at those things as conditions that people are dying from today , whereas no one necessarily looks at physical inactivity as something that people are dying from today , and I think , as a result of that , it puts us in a real disadvantage from a messaging and from an

urgency perspective around the work we're doing and the funds that we're raising for it . Now , I certainly don't think that anyone is necessarily dying from physical inactivity today acutely , but certainly many years and or decades of physical inactivity definitely result in morbidity and certainly result in mortality .

We know that from an amazing set of research that's been done over the course of the years and , just to level set this discussion with some statistics , and I don't necessarily think these are statistics that you've never heard before , but I do want to make sure I put a fine point on this discussion with these stats .

Less than 25% of American adults meet the physical activity guidelines for Americans , that's both for aerobic activity and muscle strengthening . Less than 25% of kids meet the recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity every day . We know broadly , physical inactivity costs our economy about $117 billion on a direct basis annual .

We also know that there's only one state in the entire country , illinois , that mandates K through 12 PE . And lastly , and probably most scary and ominous from a national security perspective , is that only about 23% of 17 to 24-year-olds are physically fit to serve in the military . Now , keep in mind that's not those who are physically fit that want to serve .

That's just physically fit that would be able to serve . Obviously , the population that wants to serve is much , much , much smaller . So what I will suggest to you from these statistics is that we start thinking strategically as a physical activity and exercise community about how we create a burning platform . About how we create a burning platform .

All great movements in history have a burning platform and they create messaging that matters .

It doesn't matter if you look back all the way to the time of Abraham Lincoln trying to free the slaves , if you look back to Winston Churchill in World War II , or if you look back at the moonshot or whatever other things we have created as great movements in our society .

All of those have had a burning platform and messaging matters , and I think the messaging that we need to bring forward with regard to physical inactivity is that it is a crisis and we need to figure out the effective way to frame that message .

And , as I said , I don't think I have all of the answers on this and , in fact , one thing I enjoy about a podcast environment is you can put your thoughts out in the world to have people reflect on , agree with , disagree with but , most importantly , iterate on .

Now it wouldn't be a very instructive podcast if I just left it at that and said I don't have all the answers . Good luck . So I want to talk briefly about the way I view opportunities to frame physical inactivity as a crisis , and the place I want to start is the efficiency and the effectiveness of physical activity as a public health intervention .

Now , I know I just talked about in the last episode that we should focus on cost effectiveness , not necessarily efficacy , or we've done enough work on efficacy so now it's time to shift to cost-effectiveness , and I'll grant you that . That I still think is such a critically important message .

But if we zoom out significantly and we think about movement , physical activity , as a health intervention , I find it hard pressed that anyone could argue to me with great evidence that there's anything more valuable you can do on a minute by minute basis for your health than move .

If you think about it , the physical activity guidelines for Americans is to do 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity . We know that confers significant health benefits .

But moreover , we know going from no physical activity or very little physical activity to some or just a little more physical activity is where the greatest health benefits are conferred . That's where we see the greatest reductions in morbidity , in mortality , the greatest improvements in health .

So it's not true to say you have to get to that 150 minutes to enjoy all the benefits that physical activity can give you . In fact , the biggest benefits will always be derived from going from no minutes of physical activity to some minutes of physical activity .

Indeed , going from zero to 10 minutes is infinitely more powerful than going from 140 to 150 minutes . Not all minutes of physical activity are created equal .

And if you put that up against any other health behavior I don't care if it's sleep , eating , stress reduction , whatever the health behavior might be on a minute-by-minute basis , physical activity confers the biggest benefit .

If you only ate healthy for 150 minutes a week , if you only slept well for 150 minutes a week , if you only manage your stress well for 150 minutes a week , that's not going to confer the same health benefits that a minute of physical activity is going to confer . And I don't think we talk about the efficiency message enough . I think the food is medicine .

Movement has done a very good job of creating a burning platform and creating a crisis in their space and as a result of that they've grabbed a lot of share of mind and they've grabbed a lot of share of wallet .

And if you kind of juxtapose physical activity with healthy eating , you start to realize how hard it is to drive eating behaviors in a positive direction , comparatively to how easy it is to drive physical activity behaviors . Eating involves a complex milieu of things in our environment , from what foods you have access to to your palate , to psychology .

Now , certainly some similar parallels can be said for physical activity on some level , but I think even someone that doesn't have a strong understanding of the science and the evidence would see that it is infinitely easier to get somebody to influence their physical activity by five to 10 minutes a day than it is to get somebody to influence their physical activity

by five to 10 minutes a day than it is to get somebody to influence their nutrition .

Not to say , nutrition isn't important and we shouldn't seek to address it , but when we are looking at a way to create this burning platform and this cohesive message , I think it has to start with the efficiency of physical activity and the ROI that we see from doing it in terms of improvements in our health and reductions in our morbidity .

That's the first message I'd like us to start to think about , iterate on and think about how to amplify .

The next area I want to focus on is physical literacy , and I think this is such a powerful term because it anchors the message in something that the public is used to hearing about , that is viewed as a crisis , which is general literacy and numeracy the ability to write and do math and do things that are STEM-related in schools about that is viewed as a crisis

, which is general literacy and numeracy , the ability to write and do math and do things that are STEM related . In schools , physical literacy is defined as the motivation , the confidence and the physical competence , knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life .

And the reality is right now because of just general societal constraints . Have it be engineering physical education out of schools , have it be the proliferation of technology and screens that our kids spend their time on .

The reality is we are raising a physically , a physically illiterate generation , and just as dire as raising a generation that was unable to read , unable to write , unable to do math , unable to engage in STEM would be viewed as a crisis . Physical literacy should equally be viewed as a crisis .

If anything , it should be viewed as a bigger crisis , because the reality is physically illiterate kids become physically illiterate adults who don't have the motivation , the confidence , the competence and the knowledge to engage in physical activity as adults .

So the challenge is that the generations that are adults right now at least we have some basis of physical literacy the generation that are to come , those generations are having their physical literacy degraded by the day , just because of the societal constraints that are placed around that generation in the environments where they would be coming more physically literate .

I mean , even think of sports . Sports is now almost a caste system to where you have the haves and the have-nots . You have the people who are doing amazing things in club sports and team sports , that travel , that are very talented .

But if you're not in that talented few then you're relegated to a rec league with poor coaching , poor resources and you kind of get fed up and you quit and so all these constraints end up being placed around how we make our youth more physically literate and I just have to imagine the burning platform that this can create .

Right now we see healthcare costs skyrocketing . Approximately 20% of our gross domestic product is spent on healthcare in this country . We know that is more than twice any other industrialized nation on the planet and we know we do not receive better health care than those other industrialized nations .

If we think we are spending a lot on health care now , just wait until this physically inactive child population becomes teenagers , becomes adults , and all these chronic conditions that would typically be conditions of older age or middle age are now being pulled down the lifespan into the teens , into the 20s , that's going to cause healthcare costs to absolutely skyrocket

. And again I go back to the first area that I think we could focus on this efficiency and this effectiveness . We know that getting people to move just a little bit , particularly when they're younger , starts to ingrain this behavior , and we also know from research that that might also lead to other positive health behaviors .

But even if it doesn't , just moving makes somebody infinitely healthier , and what is now 20% of our gross domestic product on health care , I fear becomes 30% and 40% to eventually the point where it crowds out all the other important social spending that should be happening and that results in dire economic consequences for our country .

Certainly , healthcare costs are something that we have to get ahead of , and physical literacy within our youth is a key key lever to pull .

Now , obviously , there is the public health impact , and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because I do think this is the same old , boring , non-compelling message that has really not driven a lot of change Now , that's not to say the general public health messaging around physical activity is not evidence-based and it shouldn't be stated , but I don't

think anyone anywhere , no matter how big of a conspiracy theorist they are is going to say for a second that physical activity is bad for you . In fact , I think one of the best things physical activity is going for it is we really don't have any enemies per se .

Everyone tends to be pro physical activity and I think a lot of times when we talk about the public health benefits , I think people kind of shake their head and go yeah , yeah , yeah , I know , there are public health benefits . People do become healthier when they do it , and it's not that we shouldn't mention that .

I just think we need to repackage that message into something that is more compelling . I think the efficiency message is a very compelling message .

I think the physical literacy message is a very compelling message , but I think just focusing on the health impacts of physical activity in and of itself , I do not feel that is an effective messaging or narrative strategy that we need to invoke .

We've been trying that for decades now and it really hasn't moved the needle in terms of making our population more physically active . So what I'm saying is is don't ignore this , but don't elevate it .

This doesn't create the burning platform that we need when the message is kind of background music like being more physically active makes you healthy , period , and that's where we stop the messaging . I think that falls on deaf ears in many , many cases .

So I think we need to be very strategic and judicious about when we pull out the sword of hey , being active makes you healthy . Because it does and everyone agrees with it , and because of that , no one's really taking notice of that messaging .

Now , another area where I think we can start to think about how we frame physical activity is through the lens of economic implications . And again , as I said earlier , if we're framing physical inactivity as a public health crisis , that's driving up healthcare costs go back to the last episode where we talked about cost effectiveness up healthcare costs .

Go back to the last episode where we talked about cost effectiveness .

We can talk about the economic implications directly what physical inactivity is costing our healthcare system but also indirectly , through measures of productivity , through absenteeism and presenteeism at work , through mental health issues mental illness on one end of the spectrum and then high-level mental performance and flourishing on the other end of the spectrum .

There's a lot of ways we can frame the messaging around this from an economic perspective and I really look to industry here to drive this type of messaging , particularly those organizations that are out there , that are self-insured organizations , large companies that are responsible for the cost of the health care of their employees .

For those organizations to start with running pilot programs on physical activity initiatives and look at productivity , look at healthcare spend , look at absenteeism , look at presenteeism , look at the data and then start to actually come up with the economic argument for why physical activity is so impactful .

Again , this differs from physical activity improving your health , in the sense that health is this abstract concept and , as I said earlier , most health that's associated with physical activity is viewed very distally .

You do physical activity and then it improves your health in the future , and I think there is data currently out there , but I think there could be a much larger volume of data that's produced that looks at the acute economic implications of physical inactivity forward , because money talks . We all know that people pay attention to money .

So how can we start to tie physical activity to cost savings and improvement in the bottom line at the organizational level , at the societal level , and , given the cost that individuals and households bear for their healthcare right now , how can we even make this relevant from an economic perspective on the individual level .

All I'm suggesting in this conversation is we start thinking about things through a different lens . The lens that we've been filtering things through the physical activity makes you healthier lens is not a false narrative . In fact , it's demonstrably a true narrative .

However , it is not a burning enough platform to catch enough people's attention and , as a result of that , in our society that competes for attention every single second of every single day , it puts us in the physical activity space at a decided disadvantage .

The last area I'd like to touch on for this discussion is the area of national security , and I truly believe this is an area of so much untapped potential for messaging around physical activity . The fortunate reality is that the United States has not been involved in a major military conflict that threatened our nation in a very , very long time .

Arguably , the last time that happened was World War II .

Certainly , you can make some arguments regarding the war on terror , but that I don't feel like had the strong driving impetus that it could come to our shores like World War II could , and as a result of that , I think we've been lulled into this false sense of security that we have enough military might in this country to be able to stand up to some of the

other global superpowers , such as China or Russia or kind of the general autocratic group of states that could be threatening our democracy and democracies around the globe . And the reality is , when you go back to that statistic , that less than a quarter of our military aged population is fit to serve .

Again , those aren't the people who are fit and interested in serving . Those are just the people that are fit to serve . You start to see that it puts us in a decided military disadvantage with other countries . The reality is , and it's a scary reality that I think a lot of times we want to bury our head in the sand about .

If we were to go to war with another nation right now , we would actually struggle to put together a fighting force that was fit enough to actually be able to appropriately defend ourselves in military conflict , and that should scare everyone .

And I realize that we tend to not think that that type of military conflict is possible , and I'm certainly not a military strategist or someone who could speak to those kind of things . What I do know is two things One , the global environment seems incredibly unstable presently and the threat of global conflict always looms .

And the last thing we want to do is find out , when global conflict arises , that we cannot populate a fighting force that is fit enough to be able to defend our sovereignty and defend our democracy .

That is something that should scare everyone , and fear is a powerful motivator for a burning platform , and I think there's a lot of great work that happens in and around the military sector . The military sector was one of the most recent sectors added to the National Physical Activity Plan .

I know there are a lot of great people out there that are doing a lot of great work with this .

However , it seems to be very , very siloed to circles of people that are involved with the military , and I would encourage all of us to start to engage with some of these individuals to say how can we amplify the message of military readiness to ensure that we do have a messaging strategy that is attention grabbing ?

I don't think enough of the American public realizes the national security crisis that looms because of the lack of physical fitness in our military age population .

All of these this efficiency and effectiveness conversation , the conversation around physical literacy , the reframing of the health impacts towards the economic impacts , the national security impacts , coming up with new messaging around this to create a burning platform . I think is critical not have the perfect answer to this right now .

I know it is something that I am thinking about tremendously . I'm having conversations with my physical activity colleagues on a physical activity alliance , colleagues on a national level .

I'm also having conversations at the state level in Michigan and we are trying to work through the messaging strategy that creates that burning platform around this that breaks through the noise and really elevates physical activity not as a public health intervention but as one of the primary public health interventions .

Every time food is medicine is mentioned , movement is medicine must be mentioned . If anything , as a community in physical activity we should be pushing to get to the point where physical activity or movement as medicine is more often mentioned than food is medicine .

And I say that with some degree of hesitation because I don't want to dissuade people from thinking that food as medicine is an important message , because it is . But as I said earlier , it is much easier to influence somebody's movement behavior than it is to emphasize and change their eating behavior .

Really need to view our success as a physical activity community not just by the research that we publish that talks about the health benefits of physical activity , but by the share of mind we have with American society and policymakers writ large , but also with the share of wallet , with the funding that we receive to not just do physical activity research .

While I think that's important and necessary , I don't think it's sufficient . I think now we need to transition . How do we message this as broadly as we possibly can ? How do we get the funding to message it as broadly and as widely as we can ?

And then , most importantly , how do we get the funding to start to implement programs at the federal , state and local level to actually move the needle on physical activity ? It's time that we go beyond just simply messaging that movement is healthy and movement matters and movement is medicine . It's time we operationalize that in the society .

It's time we create a culture of physical activity , a culture where , instead of less than a quarter of our population meeting the physical activity guidelines , more than 50% of people meet the physical activity guidelines . Wouldn't that be amazing ? Wouldn't that be a society that values physical activity ?

Right now , we are a society that , based upon the data as well as just our own two eyes , values physical inactivity greatly . We need to shift the cultural narrative and we can do that if we create a burning platform and we message the right way .

So my call to action to all of you that are out there and it doesn't matter if you are just working in a gym as an exercise professional helping personal training clients .

You could be a university professor , maybe you're someone that works in the policy systems and advocacy space , but what I would urge all of you to do is take the themes that I have brought up in this podcast episode . Think about how to amplify them , how to modify them , but , most importantly , think about how to create a burning platform .

How do we create the physical inactivity crisis ? The physical inactivity crisis . They can be right up there with a crisis on smoking , a crisis on obesity , a crisis on cancer . Insert crisis here .

Physical inactivity should be happening within the same breath , and I believe that we have the ability to do this if we just directionally orient ourself not to the substance of the messaging , but the messaging in and of itself . I hope you found this thoughtful and informative . If you have , I urge you to please share with your friends and colleagues .

Those shares , particularly in the movement of movement we're trying to create , make a huge difference for us . Any information I'd like to share with you from today's episode can be found on the show notes page , that's by going to wellnessparadoxpodcom forward slash episode 140 .

On that page I'll link up to the Physical Activity Alliance's website so you can be sure to check it out and subscribe to their newsletter . Also , don't forget to subscribe to the Wellness Paradox on your favorite podcast platform . Until we chat again next month , please be well , thank you .