Generally, individuals experiencing mental health conditions will also experience some elements of poor physical health, and vice versa.

It is the sad reality that each year 1 in 5 Australians will experience a mental illness, yet there is still a poor understanding and acceptance of mental illness. Due to this, it often goes undiagnosed and either untreated or poorly treated.

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) may result in tetraplegia (motor, sensory and/or autonomic nervous system impairment of the arms, trunk and legs) or paraplegia (impairment of the trunk and/or legs only). The adverse effects of SCI on health, fitness and functioning are frequently compounded by profoundly sedentary behaviour.

Evidence from animal and human trials indicates that bone responds positively to impact activities and high intensity progressive resistance training. Furthermore, the optimisation of muscle strength, balance and mobility minimises the risk of falls (and thereby fracture), which is particularly relevant for individuals with limited functional capacity and/or a very high risk of osteoporotic fracture.

Falls affect a significant number of older Australians and present a major challenge to health care providers and health systems. The purpose of this statement is to inform and guide exercise practitioners and health professionals in the safe and effective prescription of exercise for older community-dwelling people with the goal of preventing falls. Falls in older people are not random events but can be predicted by assessing a number of risk factors.

Resistance and aerobic training exercises are effective to alleviate some characteristic signs and symptoms in MS and should be supplemented by balance exercise to prevent falls. Exercise training programs should be prescribed and delivered by qualified exercise professionals.

This Position Statement is an update to the existing statement. It is intended for all health practitioners who manage people with hip/knee osteoarthritis. It synthesises the most recent evidence (with a focus on clinical guidelines and systematic reviews) for exercise in people with hip/knee osteoarthritis, and provides guidance to practitioners about how best to implement exercise in clinical practice.

This Position Statement examines the evidence for physical activity in weight and adiposity loss, prevention of weight and adiposity gain, and in weight regain in adults, and provides guidance on implications for exercise practitioners. Research evidence indicates that >150 min but preferably 300 min per week of aerobic activity of at least moderate intensity is required to prevent weight and adiposity gain, and at least the upper end of this range of activity to prevent weight regain after weight loss.

Hypertension is the most common circulatory system condition, accounting for >40% of the cardiovascular disease total burden. One-third of Australians aged over 18 years have hypertension and in 68% of these it is uncontrolled. Australian data show hypertension accounts for 6% of general practitioner (GP) consults. Recent evidence has confirmed exercise is an effective adjunct therapy for hypertension management and the objective of this document is to provide a contemporary, evidence-based guide for optimal delivery of an exercise programme for blood pressure management.

Exercise training likely to provide benefits to CKD patients, including improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, quality of life, sympatho-adrenal activity, muscle strength and increased energy intake and possible reduction in inflammatory biomarkers.

The Exercise and Sports Science Australia position statement: Exercise medicine in cancer management:

While for the majority, multimodal, moderate to high intensity exercise will be appropriate, there is no set prescription and total weekly dosage that would be considered evidence-based for all cancer patients.

Targeted exercise prescription, which includes the provision of behaviour change advice and support, is needed to ensure greatest benefit (as defined by the patient) in the short and longer term, with low risk of harm.

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a complex syndrome characterised by progressive decline in left ventricular function, low exercise tolerance and raised mortality and morbidity. Regular exercise participation has been shown to be a safe and effective treatment modality in the majority of CHF patients, partially reversing some of the maladaptation’s evident in myocardial and skeletal muscle function, and resulting in improvements in physical fitness and quality of life, and perhaps reduced mortality.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and pre-diabetic conditions such as impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) are rapidly increasing in prevalence.

Supervised exercise training is considered the most effective treatment for increasing exercise tolerance in patients with PAD, and is also associated with improvements in daily physical activity and quality of life, and a reduction is cardiovascular disease risk.