Dr. Steven Blair spoke Monday night at the Bessie Myers Auditorium in Ames’ Mary Greeley Medical Center. He discussed the benefits of exercise and how exercise can be considered a medicine versus traditional prescriptions for various illnesses.

Blair is a professor in the departments of Exercise Science and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, and the 2010-11 Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Chair in the College of Human Sciences. He is scheduled to speak four times per year as Hilton Chair, and Monday was his second visit.

Blair spoke late last semester at Iowa State explaining how a person can be both “in shape and overweight.” He expounded on his theory Monday, saying “physical inactivity ranks higher than obesity in leading causes of death.”

“I think that physical inactivity is ranked too low [on the leading causes of death scale],” Blair explained. “Physical inactivity is self-reported.

“There are those who might lie about how much physical activity they were involved in.”

Unlike medicine, students don’t need to “take only as directed.” Any amount of physical activity improves one’s fitness. Walking 10 minutes at a time, three times per day, is as equally effective as walking for 30 minutes at a time. By breaking up one’s physical activity, it is easy to obtain the recommended daily amount of exercise.

“150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week is all it takes to improves one’s fitness. That equates to 30 minutes for five days out of week,” Blair said. “This can be broken down into small bouts of exercise, but the minimum amount of time should be no less than 10 minutes per bout.”

“Going from low physical fitness to moderate physical fitness cuts both men’s and women’s mortality rates in half,” Blair said. “Fitness, not weight, is important.”

Blair had literature available at the lecture that gave examples of quick work or home exercises that included doing pushups, squats, plank, reverse plank and side plank.

For more information on Exercise is Medicine, visit exerciseismedicine.org