In my opinion, to be active in your life, you have to have internal motivation. External motivation cannot encourage you for a long time, or intensely enough. The most important feature that could give you internal motivation is addiction, addiction to some hormones that is produced during physical activity. And, the childhood is the best time for this addiction. I believe that any program that focused on physical activity for children has better short and long-term results, because you will seek the joy that accompanied physical activity for the rest of your life.

Some professional athlete may select an inactive life style after their career, but the rate is smaller for amateur athletes, because professional sport is not always with joy.

But when it comes to recommend a program for adults to improve their health, depends on gender, social and economical calls it is different. Would you like to know my opinion about this factors?

Hello, I think that many people know about the health benefits of physical activity, but they may not realize the risks of sedentary behavior. Interventions should probably be long-term programs so that the changes in activity levels would also be long-term, life style changes. Please find the attached a paper that discusses interventions (though the title refers to obesity, it might be helpful).

Hello, I would put it in a different perspective.... Physical activity is very beneficial for a healthy body...!!! but can and will be detrimental for an unhealthy one...

Main causes of all diseases are oxidative stressors ... and we create most of them by physical activity... so when our body is unhealthy and unable to cope with these stressors i don't think we need more of them by increasing physical activity.

First create an enviroment that is capable of neutralizing and evacuating these toxins in a proper way....

Same goes for overweight and obesita's .... do we really beleive our body is that stupid to put all that fat around our waist ???? Or do we still beleive healing comes from within ?? and that same fat is made to store excess toxins in.. as safe place to prevent further damage ...( liposuction shows fat is loaded with toxins !!) Where do these toxins come from and why are they there ????

Should there not be a balance between toxin production and toxin evacuation and should we not prevent excess toxins our body can't handle ... and maybe solve overweight . because there are no excess toxins we need to hide in a safe place .?

Inactivity and sedentary behaviour are totally different constructs. One (Inactivity) is the failure to be physically active and the prevailing behavioural literature suggests that this has more to do with intention - ie. if your intend to be active, this is is usually a strong motivator to do that behaviour. You can read up more on the theories articulating this Transtheoretical model and the Social Cognitive Theory.

Sedentary behaviour, it has been argued, relies more on habit than intention and has different behavioural constructs - as such, needs to be targeted differently in terms of interventions. 

A great discussion paper summarizing the different between the two and the theories that define them is by Dr. Stuart Biddle: http://sporttudomany.hu/Hirlevel/pdf/10/Fit_or_Sit.pdf

Hello Philippe, 

To answer to your questions. I can suggest to you 2 articles that could be very useful:

- Are people becoming inactive due to lack of knowledge of practical recommendations for physical activity, as well as the volume and intensity to achieve health benefits?

1. The main point is that people become inactive because the environment reduce the places and stimulus to be active (e.g. escalators, elevators, cars and sedentary work time). People recognize Physical inactivity as health-harming and yet continue to engage in. There is no lack of knowledge of recommendations, its a lack of control over behavior, awareness and consciousness, that means Habit and automatic processes that guide the human behavior. Read the first attached article about "Changing human behaviors".

- Would an intervention program based on the recommendations of health would increase levels of physical activity?

2. The most part of interventions aimed at changing behaviors have largely encouraged people to reflect on their behaviors (intentions, decisions,motivations or the social cognitive theories like “Theory of Planned Behavior”). Meanwhile, these approaches are often ineffectual, which is in keeping with the observation that much human behavior is automatic, cued by environmental stimuli, resulting in actions that are largely unaccompanied by conscious reflection.

The automatic aspect of human behavior: lack of intentionality, low degree of control over the behavior, lack of awareness and efficiency (Bargh, 1994), it is crucial for the understanding of the habit and his role in the regular and long-term adoption of health-related behaviours (Lally, Chipperfield & Wardle, 2008). 

If we consider these features of human behavior, i am afraid to say that an intervention program based on the recommendations of health would not increase the levels of physical activity. In fact, you must pay attention to the measure to asses physical activity levels. Read the second attached article about "Habits".

I hope that my answer could be useful for you. 

Best wishes, 

Gonzalo