Across Trinidad and Tobago, the Ministry of Health’s public health campaigns advise the population to move more. These campaigns seek to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes and hypertension; community fitness drives promote structured exercise—walking, cycling, gym workouts, or weekend sports. Cillekens et. al. (2026) challenges the one-size-fits-all approach by asking: Are our global physical activity guidelines built for everybody, or are they exercise guidelines designed for the privileged?
Cillekens et al. (2026) highlight the physical activity paradox and the need to distinguish between choice and necessity. Standard public health recommendations generally assume physical activity is a leisure-time choice. But for millions of manual workers worldwide, physical exertion is not a voluntary health pursuit—it is an economic necessity.
Some researchers argue that a distinction must be made between Leisure-Time Physical Activity (LTPA)—recreational exercise done by choice—which benefits cardiovascular health, psychological health, and longevity, and Occupational Physical Activity (OPA), which often does the opposite. The embedded physical activity in some jobs, such as heavy lifting, prolonged standing, repetitive strains, and inadequate recovery time during manual work, can lead to chronic fatigue, musculoskeletal injuries, and elevated cardiovascular stress. Telling someone who has spent eight hours performing taxing labour that they need to “move more” does not account for biological fatigue and structural inequity.
In Trinidad and Tobago, public health messaging routinely urges citizens to achieve at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. However, what does this mean for different segments of the workforce?
· Manual Labourers vs. Desk Workers: A construction worker on a site in the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, or a cook at a fast-food outlet, spends all day doing intense, repetitive physical labour in high temperatures; expecting them to hit the gym or the
recreational ground after a shift ignores biological exhaustion. In contrast, a desk worker in Port of Spain spends long hours sedentary and directly benefits from recreational exercise.
· Built Environment and Infrastructure Constraints: Public messaging often suggests jogging along public roads or joining recreation grounds. Yet, many communities lack safe sidewalks, adequate street lighting, or green spaces free from traffic hazards. Furthermore, shift workers and those commuting hours along the East-West Corridor face severe time poverty, making structured leisure exercise a luxury of time and safety.
In any equitable health framework for Trinidad and Tobago, policymakers must revisit the standard, one-size-fits-all strategies:
In terms of occupational health, traditional public health methods focus solely on basic injury prevention and hazard control. According to Cillekens et al. (2026), workplaces must incorporate structured rest periods and actively manage occupational physical strain.
In community design, the assumption is that not everyone can safely access outdoor spaces. Therefore, a modern framework must actively develop walk-friendly city centres, safe boardwalks (such as those in Chaguaramas), and well-lit rural parks. The Global South does not have the same privileges as “WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) population living in relatively activity -supportive, safe and healthy environments.”
Public health messaging often assumes exercise is an individual act and therefore does not account for numerous socio-economic, mental, and affective barriers such as time poverty, access to facilities, and travel.
According to Cillekens et al. (2026), any physical activity policy and action plan must factor in the population’s occupational reality. For Trinidad and Tobago to effectively tackle NCDs, health promotion must go beyond telling citizens to “exercise more.” Instead, the focus must be on creating working conditions in both the public and private sectors that will allow every worker to rest, recover, and move safely.
Editor’s Note
Editor’s note: The views expressed in the preceding article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organisation in which he is a stakeholder.
