Physical Activity

Community Health Promotion supports community efforts and partnerships that promote opportunities to make it easy to incorporate physical activity into everyday activities. Take a look at the strategies section to learn more about these efforts in Kansas.

Everyone can experience the health benefits of physical activity – age, abilities, ethnicity, shape, or size do not matter.

Senior couple power walking in the fall

Benefits of Physical Activity

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Regular physical activity reduces the risk of several chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. In 2020, 22% of Kansas adults did not participate in any physical activities or exercises other than their job in the past 30 days. This is a decrease from 2019 in which 27.1% of adults did not participate in these activities.

Health benefits from physical activity start immediately after you do it. Even short amounts of physical activity are good for you and those short amounts add up for cumulative benefit. There are many ways to be physically active, and you may be surprised at what counts. Use the Move Your Way interactive tool to build a weekly activity plan with a wide variety of ways to get your body moving from walking or running, to games and gardening and even household chores.  

Minimum Recommendations & How to Get Started

Minimum recommendations for children and adolescents is 60 minutes of physical activity a day with vigorous-intensity, muscle strengthening and bone strengthening activity at least 3 days a week. Adults should strive for a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week and muscle strengthening activity at least 2 days a week.  If you are not sure about becoming active or boosting your level of physical activity the good news is that moderate-intensity aerobic activity, such as brisk walking, is generally safe for most people.

If you have not been physically active in a while, you may be wondering how to get started again.  Find more tips to get started with physical activity.

  1. Strategies
  2. Resources

Strategies being implemented at the community level:

  • Increasing the number of communities that adopt and implement healthy community design principles, like master bicycle and pedestrian transportation plans that help towns and counties prioritize infrastructure that supports residents in getting places by biking or walking or rolling.

  • Implementing Safe Routes to School or initial projects like a walking school bus or holding a bike to school day.

  • Supporting creative placemaking activities that help foster a sense of place and belonging in communities, increase physical and mental wellbeing of residents, and strengthen or revitalize the local economy.