What is the Difference Between Physical Activity and Exercise?
Here's why your domestic chores or physical activity at work don't count as exercise.
The other day, I was explaining to my patient the need for daily exercise, and she went,
“Dr, let me just stop you there, I exercise oo. I don’t have any domestic workers at home. All my kids are in school, so I do the sweeping, cleaning, the cooking, the washing, and every errand around the house”.
I let her finish, and I broke the news to her.
“Madam, that one is not exercise oo. That is physical activity.”
So, if you are reading this and also thinking that every day, “I climb up and down the stairs 20 times, I reach my 6,000 steps at work”, I have to say the same thing to you: that’s not exercise—that’s physical activity.
Does physical activity use up your energy? Yes, it does.
Does physical activity burn calories? Yes, it does.
But other than the burning of calories during physical activity, you don’t get the other benefits that come from exercise. What benefits are those?
Keep reading to find out why your body doesn’t record activity at work or domestic chores at home as exercise.
What is Physical Activity? What is Exercise?
The terms ‘physical activity’ and ‘exercise’ are often used interchangeably, in literature and daily practice, even by healthcare professionals, but they are two different concepts.
“‘Physical activity’ refers to any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in an expenditure of energy (expressed in kilocalories), and which includes a broad range of occupational, leisure and daily activities. ‘Exercise’ instead refers to planned or structured physical activity, performed for a reason, which can be aerobic exercise, resistance training or combined aerobic and resistance training.”
Here are a few reasons why physical activity does not equal exercise
1. Stress hormones vs feel-good hormones
During physical activity and exercise, your body releases stress hormones to help you out of your baseline resting state.
Physical activity done at work or domestic chores is a sort of compulsory stress that speeds up your heart rate, raises your blood pressure, and keeps you on alert so you can complete all the necessary tasks. It releases only stress hormones.
And then, there is exercise, which is optional stress. Your body still releases stress hormones, but because exercise is graded in intensity, allows for rest in between, and keeps you in a positive mood, your body will also release feel-good hormones known as endorphins.
Endorphins help to relieve pain, lower stress, improve your mood, and your sense of well-being.
2. Continuous scaling in power vs daily routine
As you start exercising, you will need to gradually increase the difficulty level to challenge your body over time. For instance, if you could break a sweat after running on the treadmill for 5 minutes, a time will come when breaking a sweat requires more speed, resistance, or more time.
If you started with lifting 20kg weights, you would eventually move up to 30kg and then 40kg to keep on challenging your muscles.
However, there is rarely any scaling with domestic work. Over time, domestic chores and office work become repetitive activities that do not challenge your physical fitness, and you may not burn as many calories as before, as your body has adjusted to your daily routine.
A study conducted in over 2,000 women in British towns found that while at least 2.5 hours of brisk walking per week was associated with a lower risk of being overweight, 2.5 hours of heavy housework was not.
3. The goal of exercise is to improve your physical fitness.
This is not just about burning calories or losing weight. Someone might have a normal body mass index (BMI), but still be physically unfit.
Physical fitness must include five components:
Cardio-respiratory fitness
Muscular strength and endurance
Agility
Flexibility
Balance
Now, ask yourself: Do my daily domestic chores or activities at work consider all these five components?
“Exercise is a subcategory of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive, and purposefully focused on improvement or maintenance of one or more components of physical fitness.”
Exercise is an Investment into a Healthy Future
There are many investors today who paid a small sum for some stocks a decade ago and are now receiving the dividends.
There are many 70-year-olds today who can still jog around the neighborhood, play with their kids, and move around without walking aids, and do not depend on medications to sustain their lives.
The dividends of the exercise you start today are many. Fit joints mean less risk of arthritis, a fit heart means less risk of stroke and heart attacks, and a fit brain means less risk of depression, dementia, and brain diseases in old age. A fit body means less risk of metabolic diseases in general.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 3 adults and 81% of adolescents do not get enough exercise. No wonder heart disease is the world’s biggest killer. If the youths and adults of today had more exercise, then in the decades to come, we would have fewer strokes, coronary artery diseases, fewer arthritis, cancer, and other inflammatory conditions.
As a working parent myself, this is something I’m really working on - setting aside time for exercise. Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a working mother, you need to know that more physical activity doesn’t mean you’re getting fit; it could mean more stress, so make sure you have structured, purposeful physical activity that targets the five components of fitness listed above.
And for our men, stress at work is the exact reason why you should structure some time to exercise; you don’t need smoke or alcohol, normalize having a sporting event as your hangout activity. You need endorphins to counteract all those stress hormones.
Happy Father’s Day to you all!
Remember, staying fit and healthy must be prioritized over getting the check and the bag. Share this with your loved ones!
Stay hale and hearty — Dr Nguper
REFERENCES
1. Mann, Steven, et al. ‘Differential Effects of Aerobic Exercise, Resistance Training and Combined Exercise Modalities on Cholesterol and the Lipid Profile: Review, Synthesis and Recommendations’. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.z.), vol. 44, no. 2, 2014, pp. 211–21. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-013-0110-5.
2. ‘Exercise vs. Physical Activity’. Penn State College of Medicine Research, https://research.med.psu.edu/oncology-nutrition-exercise/patient-guides/exercise-vs-activity/. Accessed 15 June 2025.
3. Dasso, Nancy A. ‘How Is Exercise Different from Physical Activity? A Concept Analysis: DASSO’. Nursing Forum, vol. 54, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 45–52. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12296.
4.Lawlor, DA & Taylor, M & Bedford, C & Ebrahim, Sadeghi. (2002). Is housework good for health? Levels of physical activity and factors associated with activity in elderly women. Results from the British Women’s Heart and Health Study. Journal of epidemiology and community health. 56. 473–8. 10.1136/jech.56.6.473.
Here’s an easy workout schedule you can do even when you’re feeling tired. Remember, consistency matters.
Dr you are write up on issues pf health is very impressive keep it up God bless