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When to check with a doctor
healthdirect suggests speaking with your doctor before you start if you have a health condition or haven’t been active for a while. Once you are riding, pain or tightness in your chest, shortness of breath or dizziness are its signs to stop.
General information, not medical advice. airbike.com.au is a guide published by Dotto, and the health lines on this page follow healthdirect. For advice about your own health, talk to your doctor, or call healthdirect on 1800 022 222. If you need urgent medical help, call triple zero (000).
Guidelines for different groups
healthdirect points out that some people have their own physical activity guidelines, including people in certain age groups, people who are pregnant, and people with a disability or a chronic condition. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing publishes separate recommendations for older adults, for adults with disability, for adults with chronic conditions, and for pregnancy.
The page for people with chronic conditions keeps the same weekly aims as for other adults, and adds three tips: start slowly and build up where possible, know that professional help may be needed, and trade sitting time, such as screen time, for movement.
Before you start
healthdirect says that any exercise is better than none, and that light or moderate exercise is safe for most people. It names the moments when a conversation with a doctor or another health professional comes first:
| Your situation | What healthdirect suggests |
|---|---|
| Starting any new exercise program | Get advice from your doctor or a health professional, who can check the plan suits you |
| A health condition, or a long break from being active | Speak with your doctor before you start |
| New to exercise, especially with a pre-existing health condition | Speak with your doctor, who may refer you to an exercise physiologist to design a safe program |
| Heart disease, or any other medical condition | Keep watch on your symptoms, and “always keep your medicines with you” |
| An exercise hurts | Stop straight away, rest, and speak to an exercise professional or a doctor |
Signs to stop
healthdirect’s signs to stop
healthdirect’s advice is to stop exercising and rest, and to get help if you need it, “if you feel any pain or tightness in your chest, shortness of breath or dizziness”.
Chest pain can be a symptom of a heart attack. If your chest pain “is severe, gets worse or lasts longer than 10 minutes”, call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance.
Injuries that need a doctor straight away
healthdirect: see a doctor immediately
For an injury while exercising, healthdirect says to see a doctor immediately if it causes significant bleeding, dizziness, weakness or extreme pain.
Its cycling page gives a similar list for injuries from cycling: significant bleeding, numbness, weakness or extreme pain.
Who can plan exercise with you
An exercise physiologist is an allied health professional with a university degree who builds and manages exercise programs for people with physical or mental health conditions, injuries or disability. They work in places such as hospitals, aged care homes, health clinics and gyms, and your doctor can refer you to an accredited exercise physiologist.
healthdirect draws the line with physiotherapists this way: exercise physiologists help people manage long-term health problems through exercise, while physiotherapists focus more on diagnosing and treating injuries, mostly in their early stages. Among the questions it suggests asking an exercise physiologist are whether you need special equipment and how to use it safely, and what to do if you feel pain during or after exercise.
Screening questionnaires
Exercise & Sports Science Australia publishes pre-exercise screening systems: one for adults, called the Adult Pre-Exercise Screening System, and others for young people and for pregnancy. The adult and young people’s systems each come as a screening tool with a user guide. ESSA says any health professional is free to download and use them, with reference to ESSA, Sports Medicine Australia and Fitness Australia.
For the everyday side of riding, from warming up to setting the saddle height, see Safe exercise at home. The department’s full set of recommendations is at health.gov.au.