Pay the Price for Inactivity: Experts Reveal How Movement Affects Your Body and Mind

Your biological age can be 15-20 years younger than your chronological age if you stay active. However, the famed 10,000 steps are not a cure-all. Neither is the advice to “pull yourself together and force yourself to exercise.” Together with A1, we decided to find out how even a minute of movement changes us and our lives. Our experts include rehabilitation specialist and fitness trainer Tatyana Bogdan and clinical psychologist Yulia Dorofeeva.

Move to the Rhythm of Good!

On August 23, the National Football Stadium will host the finale of the charity initiative “In One Rhythm with A1: Minutes of Good” — a grand celebration of sports, joy, and care for children, uniting thousands of people in one rhythm of movement. Entry is free with prior registration. The first 3,000 guests who accumulate more than 1 hour of activity at the event will receive exclusive socks created in collaboration with A1 and CONTE.

What awaits the guests?

Charity run
For the first time on the field of the new National Stadium: football battle “A1 Junior” vs “Inform” FC bloggers
Interactive sports areas: running, cycling, football, basketball, yoga, field hockey, dance workouts, wooden games, activities for children
Signature workouts from popular bloggers
Unique photo zone with a view of the stadium
Evening flash mob and a fiery DJ set
Every minute of movement will be counted in the total “minutes of good” in real-time via QR codes
Minutes of your movement = real help for children

📍 National Stadium (Vaneeva St. × Partizansky Ave.)
🕙 August 23, 10:00–21:00
🎟 Free entry with prior registration at 👉 dabro.a1.by

Trainer and Rehabilitation Specialist Tatyana Bogdan: “Biological age can be 15 years younger than chronological age”

Why do they say that movement is life?

It’s in our nature: to be healthy, humans need to move. During adequate physical activity with sufficient recovery, the composition of the blood changes: blood enriched with nutrients and oxygen is distributed to the organs and tissues, achieving a health-improving effect and counteracting a range of diseases.

Secondly, proper posture is important for health. But if a person does not exercise, it is impossible to maintain correct posture. Thirdly, through movement, a person can counteract stress, maintaining their health.

What happens if a person does not move or moves insufficiently?

To be healthy, the body must resist hunger, cold, and physical exertion and have the ability to recover from it. That is, health comes through resistance. If a person’s life includes regular physical activity, the body remains toned, gets used to “fending off blows,” and resisting. This is how overall health is maintained. If this does not happen, the body’s capabilities decrease, and health “fades away.”

This happens both at the level of the entire body and individual organs. For example, the knee joint is programmed to bend and straighten. But a person sits all day. The joint is always bent and not working. It does not receive blood in the required volume, and as a result, it deteriorates.

How does movement strengthen the immune system?

Let’s consider an example. Two people of the same age have hearts that pump 4 liters of blood per minute at rest. During physical exertion, a trained heart can pump up to 10 liters, and an untrained heart up to 6 liters.

Suppose both of these people get sick: they catch some virus. To activate the buffer systems and trigger the immune response, the blood needs to be “pumped” to 8 liters per minute. The body of a trained person will handle this. The person will feel unwell, rest for the evening, and return to normal.

An untrained body simply cannot “pump” the blood to the required speed. As a result, the immune system will not respond, and there is a high probability that the person will get sick, possibly with complications.

Are the famed 10,000 steps really a panacea?

If 10,000 steps consist of a series of short transitions from home to a coffee shop, from the car to the store, they are not as effective.

Of course, it is always better to move than not to move — this is an axiom. But it is better if your walk lasts at least 30-40 minutes.

Let me explain why. As I already mentioned, the power of the heart is extremely important for health — its ability as a pump to draw in and expel blood. This power develops during continuous aerobic physical activity lasting at least 30-40 minutes. Otherwise, this power simply will not develop.

You mentioned that proper posture is important for health. Why?

The entire body should align vertically: the head over the chest, the chest over the pelvis, the pelvis over the feet. And I will immediately say that for a person who does not exercise, achieving this is practically impossible.

Proper posture is necessary for the full functioning of the entire body. Nerves extend from the spine that nourish the internal organs. When the spine is displaced, all internal organs are displaced relative to their axes, and the nerves are pinched and stretched. As a result, due to impaired nerve supply, the organs do not work to their full potential — not as they should.

Moreover, proper posture means normal lymph flow, and this has an anti-cellulite effect, right at the moment!

Now let’s look in more detail. If, for example, the pelvis is tilted, the hip joints cannot fully perform their function. Blood flow slows down, stagnant processes develop, and the condition of the pelvic floor changes. Pressure is exerted on the pelvic organs, and associated diseases can develop. For example, hemorrhoids, urinary incontinence, diseases of the urogenital system.