When Canada’s Heart & Stroke Foundation revealed last year that, despite the desire to cultivate an image of health with every step of their high-tech sneakers, baby boomers are actually in worse shape than their parents, you could almost hear the whine: “We bought the gear, didn’t we? Where are the results?”

That underlines the real truth about being fit: it is all about walking the walk.

“You can have the best training program in the world. But if nobody is doing it, it’s not any good,” says Howard Wenger, professor of exercise physiology in the School of Physical Education at the University of Victoria.

According to the H&S Found-ation’s 2006 Report Card on Health, a whopping 52% of boomers are inactive. Slightly less than one in three boomers (30%) are considered obese, with a body mass index higher than 30 (see below). While seniors (ages 65 to 74) are doing better on their weight (24% are obese), their activity levels are dismal, with half living a sedentary lifestyle.

At the bare minimum, Canadians should be adding physical elements to their daily tasks to improve their overall fitness levels, says Joe Doiran, senior policy analyst at the Centre for Health Promotion at the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa. The usual strategies — taking the stairs instead of an elevator, choosing to walk instead of taking the car on local errands and, when using a vehicle, parking far away from your destination — can provide big benefits to health.

Canada’s Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living, available free online or by mail (www.phac-aspc.gc.ca), recommends 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity on a daily basis and features suggested starting points, depending on how fit an adult is to begin with. (The guide is also available in special editions for children, youths and older adults.)

The key for sedentary types is to build activity into everyday activities, Doiran says. Exercise time can be split into small 10-minute bursts throughout the day, making it easier to exercise than people might think: “Small incremental bouts of physical activity throughout the day can add up to significant health benefits over time.”

The guide has suggestions for home, work, school, play and “on the way,” including getting off the bus before your stop and walking the rest of the way.

Is anyone listening? The guide was launched in 1988 and is the second most requested government health publication after Canada’s Food Guide. Yet H&S Foundation statistics tell us that 73% of Canadians aged 45 to 64 are overweight or obese. And government figures indicate that 63% of Canadians are simply not moving enough to benefit their health.

What can you do? Get off the couch, for one. But true fitness requires each person understand where he or she sits on his or her own fitness spectrum — and then devise a program to get to the next level, says Dina Brooks, associate professor in the department of physical therapy at the University of Toronto.

That’s where the “20 minutes of exercise” rule comes into play. “Adults should be active in a cardiovascular manner at least three to five times a week for at least 20 minutes,” she says. To get your target heart rate (and this is only for individuals who are not taking medications that may affect the numbers), subtract your age from 220. Your maximum heart rate is 75%-85% of that figure (220 – age x 0.75).

At the very least, she says, everyone should know the “talk test.” When exercising at your most vigorous, you should be able to have a conversation. That’s not to say that you won’t be huffing and puffing, but your heart is working at its optimal level when you can still talk.

Cross-training — a term that sounds more athletic than it has to — is also important, Brooks says. By hitting your target heart rate during a variety of different activities — biking one day, swimming the next — you’re working different muscles, so you are giving your body a better workout and preventing possible injury from repetition.

Fitness isn’t all about the heart, of course. Other components — strength and flexibility, for instance — often get ignored.

@page_break@Wenger says that these elements won’t come together without a plan: “If you don’t lay it out on a daily and weekly and monthly basis, the same issues you face in convincing people about the merits of financial planning are going to face you in terms of health and wellness planning. IE