“The effect on fitness, morale and social relationships is so obvious”: why you should take up sport

"Moving 30 minutes a day means improving our health" : on the occasion of the Olympic Games, the regional health agency is launching a campaign that invites to practice physical activity, not to become a champion but to stay in shape, while almost a third of men and almost one in two women are too inactive. Vivien Hausberg, leading physiotherapist in sports health, gives the keys to getting started.

"Moving 30 minutes a day means improving our health" : on the occasion of the Olympic Games, the regional health agency is launching a campaign that invites to practice physical activity. This is also the credo of Vivien Hausberg, leading physiotherapist in sports health in Montpellier, and general treasurer of the national union of rehabilitative masseurs physiotherapists, the SNMKR.

Vivien Hausberg: “You have to have fun doing sport.” DR

The sedentary lifestyle figures are at their highest, including among young people, it’s worrying ?

We have to be realistic, a big digital shift is going through society, everyone has been affected, even children who are subject to heavy demands. We can clearly see that we have difficulty keeping young people in the same sport throughout their childhood, licenses are falling in all federations, except football and rugby. They are in high demand and they end up "wasting their time" in front of a screen.

The figures for childhood obesity (Editor's note: one in six children is obese or overweight) show this, and it is worrying given the impact in terms of comorbidities for health.

We also see that electric scooters are becoming established on journeys previously made on foot. 

When we get older, it’s another problem, we stop doing sports ?

It all depends, there is sometimes a reversal of behavior among retirees who have more time available. Communications on aging well have made it possible to become aware that physical activity allows us to live better, while allowing social connections, sport is a vector of encounters.

Sport on prescription, which first targeted people with long-term illnesses (ALD) in 2016, and since 2022, those with chronic illnesses, walking ?

In addition to the digital disruption, there is also a demographic disruption, with an aging population, which is reflected in the explosion of chronic pathologies, not only in France, but in all developed countries. Economically, it won't work. We have to get people into sport. With a little confusion: when we talk about “sport on prescription”, people think “sport reimbursed by Social Security”.

It is not enough to prescribe physical activity, and imagine that health insurance and mutual funds will provide funding in a sustainable manner.

Why you need to move every day. SOPHIE WAUQUIER

Health sport, for chronically ill people or sedentary people, makes it possible to include people in a system for six to nine months, who will get better by doing sport on a regular basis. Afterwards, people continue on their own, especially since they are anchored in a social network that they have thus established. There is no question of financing a lifetime subscription to Keep Cool… Healthy sport is a springboard.

"Start by walking half an hour a day, but every day!"

You have shown, through a study carried out around Nîmes and published in 2022, to what extent this initial support can still change the situation: there is a big difference, in a cohort of 70 people: followed over three months, between the group simply encouraged to take up sport, and those who were followed by a professional in adapted physical activity…

If sport is part of your culture, and this is less and less the case, it won't be complicated. Otherwise, there will be a need for support.

The results in terms of physical condition and comorbidities were not conclusive, the group was too small. But we were able to at least show two things: the accompanied group was observant, 70% compared to 8% in the first group, and it acquired a culture of physical activity .

What advice would you give to someone who is sedentary and wants to get moving?

People often expect magical answers, they want a result right away. We must return to grandmother's common sense, knowing that we are not talking about competitive sport: we must move, it must if possible be fun, and it must be the opportunity to move around.

Start by walking half an hour a day, but on a daily basis, especially from the age of 40 onwards, that's when the risk factors appear. And I will finally say that we must also practice outdoors, especially in a region like ours.

"When CrossFit came out, there was the idea that we were going to recover injured people. Not at all!"

Are there sports to favor, easier to access, more effective?

I have heard for years that swimming is the complete sport par excellence, we rehabilitate a lot of people who do breaststroke and who have neck and shoulder pain’ hellip; I think you have to be motivated, and adapt to your context. We see it with the rise of paddle: it’s popular because it’s fun and sporty.

But it's hard on the joints, it's like running every day…hellip;

When CrossFit came out, among health professionals, there was the idea that we were going to recover a lot of injured people…hellip; not at all! People were in groups and they had a great time.

It is necessary to vary the activities to work the whole body, and avoid too many targeted demands which could lead to an injury ?

When we vary too much, the body is unable to constantly adapt. In my office, I see people with this profile who have musculotendinous injuries for these reasons. A sprinter who starts a marathon will undoubtedly hurt himself, the muscles do not work in the same way.

You have to practice an activity that you love, even if you are monomaniacal.

And don't calculate…

Once again, have fun, be outdoors, with friends. Very quickly, the effect on fitness, morale and social relations is so obvious that people persevere.

Do you believe in the "Olympic Games" ?

I don't know, the Olympics are the sport of excellence.

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