Issue 24-6, 2025

Review

https://doi.org/10.38025/2078-1962-2025-24-6-70-81

Insufficient Physical Activity: Terminology and Diagnostics. A Review

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ORCIDMaria V. Kuropatenko*, ORCIDElizaveta A. Agapova, ORCIDTimofey V. Sergeev, ORCIDTatyana V. Novikova, ORCIDMikhail V. Ryzhov, ORCID Nikolay B. Suvorov, ORCID Alexander Z. Yafarov, ORCIDEvgeniia А. Sokolova, ORCID Alexandra S. Anisimova, ORCIDJulia A. Kuznetsova, ORCIDAlexandr V. Belov, ORCIDNadezhda L. Guseva, ORCID Alexander V. Shabrov

Institute of Experimental Medicine, Saint Petersburg, Russia


ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION. Physical activity (PA) among the population in most countries around the world is steadily declining, increasing the risk of developing non-communicable diseases. Numerous studies and publications have addressed this issue, but they lack terminological and methodological uniformity in defining the type and degree of physical activity impairments.

AIM. Developing a classification of PA levels to serve as the foundation for a comprehensive diagnostic methodology for insufficient physical activity (IPA). This methodology is designed to identify hypokinesia and hypodynamia and assess their consequences.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The selection of publications was carried out in the PubMed and Web of Science databases, as well as in the eLIBRARY.RU and CyberLeninka scientific electronic libraries, covering the period from January 1985 to July 2025. Initially, 176 publications in Russian and English were selected by such keywords as “physical inactivity”, “hypokinesia”, “physical activity”, “sedentary lifestyle”, as well as 88 publications by keywords: “MET system”, “exercise tolerance”, “cardiorespiratory endurance”, “muscular endurance”. After excluding duplicate articles, 127 sources remained, from which 52 were selected that best corresponded to the purpose of the review, with preference given to publications published in the last 5 years. Experimental scientific articles, reviews, and meta-analyses devoted to the problem of PA reduction and poor exercise tolerance were studied.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Publications analysis showed that the terms “hypokinesia” and physical inactivity (“hypodynamia”) are often used in three different senses: as cause and effect, as synonyms and as independent concepts. In addition to the presence of terminological uncertainty, there is no single standard for assessing the degree of decrease in physical activity, and existing methods have shortcomings. We have developed a classification of physical activity types that eliminates terminological ambiguity. Within the framework of this classification, subtypes of insufficient physical activity are identified, taking into account the contribution of its constituent components: hypokinesia — lack of movement time and physical inactivity — lack of intensity (speed and strength) of physical activity. This classification served as the basis for the creation of a methodology for the comprehensive diagnostics of insufficient physical activity, including survey, specialized questionnaires and testing of exercise intolerance. The methodology is aimed at identifying and evaluating two types of deficiency, manifested by a decrease in cardiorespiratory endurance in hypokinesia and a decrease in muscle strength and endurance in physical inactivity.

CONCLUSION. The developed classification of insufficient physical activity, which takes into account the contribution of hypokinesia and physical inactivity, eliminates semantic uncertainty surrounding the issue of decreased physical activity. The proposed method for the comprehensive diagnosis of insufficient physical activity makes it possible to differentially assess the lack of training degree of the cardiorespiratory and muscular systems, which can become the basis for the development of personalized programs for the normalization of physical activity.


KEYWORDS: insufficient physical activity, lack of time for active movement, hypokinesia, cardiorespiratory endurance, lack of physical activity intensity, physical inactivity, muscular endurance, IPAQ and GPAQ questionnaires, MET system, activity trackers, physical activity tolerance

FOR CITATION: Kuropatenko M.V., Agapova E.A., Sergeev T.V., Novikova T.V., Ryzhov M.V., Suvorov N.B., Yafarov A.Z., Sokolova E.A., Anisimova A.S., Kuznetsova J.A., Belov A.V., Guseva N.L., Shabrov A.V. Insufficient Physical Activity: Terminology and Diagnostics. A Review. Bulletin of Rehabilitation Medicine. 2025; 24(6):70–81. https://doi.org/10.38025/2078-1962-2025-24-6-70-81 (In Russ.).

FOR CORRESPONDENCE:

Maria V. Kuropatenko, E-mail: kuropatenko.mv@iemspb.ru


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