EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2020 March;73(1):140-64

DOI: 10.23736/S0025-7826.20.03689-3

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Exercise prescription for health: Italian perspective. Italian guidelines for exercise prescription in healthy adults (18-65 years)

Simone PORCELLI ^{1, 2} ✉, Giovanni A. BIANCHI ^{1, 2}, Luca AGNELLO ², Giorgio MANFERDELLI ¹, Alfonso MASTROPIETRO ¹, Fabio PIGOZZI ^{2, 3}, Maurizio CASASCO ²

¹ Institute of Biomedical Technologies, National Research Council, Segrate, Milan, Italy; ² Italian Sports Medicine Federation, Rome, Italy; ³ Unit of Sports Medicine, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, Foro Italico University, Rome, Italy

Exercise prescription has been widely deepened and discussed by National and International Organizations. Lack of physical activity has been demonstrated to be associated to premature all causes mortality and chronic diseases. Although developing an active lifestyle is one of the most effective preventive treatment for chronic diseases, more than 25% of adults doesn’t match the current guidelines about physical exercise around the world. The existing guidelines suggest the practice of moderate-intensity physical activity in combination with muscle-strengthening and flexibility exercises; none of them takes into consideration sedentariness and the amount of exercise performed during everyday-life activities. The aim of this article is to guide clinicians in exercise prescription by reviewing current international guidelines and introducing the new concept of “corrections factors”: the amount of sedentary time is converted in more minutes of physical exercise; daily-life activities (e.g. steps) lessen the amount of time a person should perform physical exercise. These guidelines are currently under review to be utilized by Italian Health system as fundamental reference for exercise prescription.

KEY WORDS: Guidelines; Exercise; Health promotion; Italy