The whole world has revived from COVID-19 pandemic with lots of struggle and effort. But another pandemic we were facing for last so many decades, but did very little- known as PHYSICAL INACTIVITY. This is considered fourth leading cause of death worldwide. New data revealed that nearly one third of adult population worldwide, approximately 1.8 billion people, did not meet the recommended levels of physical activity. The findings also pointed to a worrying trend of physical inactivity among adults, which has increased by about 5 percentage points between 2010 and 2022. 

If the trend continues, levels of sedentary lifestyle are projected to further rise to 35% by 2030. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults should be involved in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or equivalent, per week. Physical inactivity poses greater risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, type 2 diabetes, dementia or even breast and colon cancer.

The highest rates of physical inactivity were observed in the high-income Asia Pacific region (48%) and South Asia (45%), with levels of inactivity in other regions ranging from 28% in high-income Western countries to 14% in Oceania. Disparities also remain between gender and age. Physical inactivity is still more common among women globally compared with men, with inactivity rates of 34% compared to 29%. Additionally, people over 60 years are less active than other adults, underscoring the importance of promoting physical activity for older people.

Physical activity has been proposed as a form of treatment for people with non communicable diseases (NCDs). In the updated guidelines for healthy adults from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , a clear dose–response association between the volume of physical activity and mortality rates has been shown. Hence it is even more important for the exercise medicine practitioner to have a holistic approach regarding the disease load and prescribe exercise at a specific dose. The prescription should also address all component of physical fitness like endurance, strength, balance and flexibility. At the same time it is also essential to follow key guidelines for different groups of population such as pre school children, adolescent, adult, older adult and even women with pregnancy.

Although evidence for the benefits of exercise has been available since 1950s, health promotion through physical activity is recently developed as an identifiable infrastructure, including planning, policy, leadership and advocacy, workforce training and development, monitoring and surveillance. The reasons for this late start are myriad, multifactorial, and complex.  Hence there is a need to build global capacity based on the present foundations. Also a systematic approach to raise awareness of the multiple benefits of physical activity at individual and community level is needed. A population based approach focusing on the complex interactions among the correlates of sedentary lifestyle, rather than solely an idividualized behavioural science approach, is the way forward to increase physical activity worldwide.