From WNBA Dreams to Changing Lives: On A Mission to Promote Physical Activity
As a child, Amber W. Kinsey, Ph.D., dreamed of playing professional basketball in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). While her path led her elsewhere, her passion for sports ignited a lifelong mission to transform lives through physical activity and exercise.
Kinsey at a Las Vegas Aces WNBA game.
Now an assistant professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Kinsey focuses her research on optimizing lifestyle interventions for cardiometabolic health among priority populations. Kinsey defines priority populations as “groups that are experiencing health disparities, underrepresented in research, and/or experiencing worse outcomes in response to interventions.”
At a recent UAB Preventive Medicine Grand Rounds presentation, Kinsey shared strategies for promoting physical activity among these populations. Her mission: To use physical activity and exercise as tools to empower others.
Amber W. Kinsey, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Division of Preventive Medicine, UAB Heersink School of Medicine
What are Priority Populations?
Kinsey defines priority populations as “groups that are experiencing health disparities, underrepresented in research, and/or experiencing worse outcomes in response to interventions”.
“Not everyone has access to physical activity opportunities. We must consider the broader context – where people live, work, play, and other factors beyond one’s control – to understand what contributes to an active lifestyle.”
Understanding the Bigger Picture
“Not everyone has access to physical activity opportunities,” Kinsey said. “We must consider the broader context – where people live, work, play, and other factors beyond one’s control – to understand what contributes to an active lifestyle.”
While acknowledging the importance of addressing root causes of inactivity, Kinsey emphasizes that “to truly change health statistics, we need to focus on changing behaviors.”
Learning from Success Models
“In every community, there are some individuals who manage to maintain good health practices despite challenging circumstances,” Kinsey said. “Learning more about their strategies for success and using that information to develop programs may allow us to better help others facing similar challenges.” Some of her work on this topic can be found here.
Exercise Snacks
One of Kinsey’s creative strategies involves “exercise snacks” – brief bursts of activity lasting up to five minutes. These can include taking the stairs, doing jumping jacks, or performing bodyweight squats.
“Finding opportunities to move throughout the day is a great way to be more active,” Kinsey said. “While this concept isn’t new, framing it as ‘exercise snacks’ makes it fun and digestible – pun intended!”
A Gateway to Accessible Exercise
Kinsey is also reimagining traditional approaches to physical activity promotion. “For some health outcomes, consistent resistance training twice a week can be as effective as three to five days of aerobic exercise,” she noted. She goes on to say that “resistance training may be a good first step to getting people active”. “Some data suggests that priority populations prefer resistance training over cardio and may even experience better outcomes with resistance training for some health measures”, said Kinsey.
Her two Forge AHEAD Center projects aim to make resistance training more accessible for priority populations.
Meeting People Where They Are
Kinsey’s work spans exercise science, behavioral medicine, and public health research. “We know physical activity and exercise are effective for improving health and wellbeing,” she said. “We need to figure out effective ways to help people stay active in ways that fit their unique lifestyle and circumstances.”
While she may not be competing in the WNBA, Kinsey is undoubtedly making significant strides towards improving public health, one exercise snack at a time.
Learn more about both of Kinsey’s Forge AHEAD Projects, OVERCOME-IT and an integrated cardiometabolic intervention, as well as her other research at UAB.
“For some health outcomes, consistent resistance training twice a week can be as effective as three to five days of aerobic exercise,”
What are Exercise Snacks?
Kinsey defines exercise snacks as brief bursts of physical activity lasting up to five minutes that can be incorporated throughout the day.
Kinsey putting up some shots after completing her resistance training workout at the gym.
