Many people think that doing exercise has to involve traditional fitness activities like going to a gym, attending an aerobics class, playing a team sport, or jogging for miles around their local streets and footpaths.
And they may also think that the main reasons to exercise in the first place are to get fit or to lose weight.
But actually those are narrow views of exercise - exercise is really any movement you make with your body, and whilst the ideas of getting fit or losing weight can be good motivators to get you to do more exercise, fundamentally exercise is important because our bodies don't work very well if we do not use them/move them!
Exercise can help cure some forms of heart disease, help prevent or reverse diabetes (usually in conjunction with an improved diet), provide effective therapy for some people with arthritis, helps people prevent or recover from some forms of cancer, and can also help alleviate stress and depression.
But despite all this, many people do not do enough exercise!
Whilst our modern lifestyle with cars and other labour-saving devices, inactive jobs sat at office desks, and passive entertainments like TV and computer games, has certainly contributed to this, you can not afford to use this as an excuse for not getting enough exercise - continuing to sit idle all day could literally kill you.
So what do you need to do to improve your health - what is 'enough' exercise and how should you get it?
The fact is that doing any exercise is better than none, and whilst hours spent at the gym or running could get you super fit, you can still gain real health benefits from simpler, easier, cheaper activities like walking, gardening, swimming, DIY, cleaning your car, or doing the housework - many physical activities can count as beneficial exercise.
The main thing to try to do is to move more, although if you are pretty unfit at the moment do try to start things slowly (and if you have any serious or chronic conditions then check things out with your doctor first - although they have probably already advised you to get more active, yes?). You are aiming to raise your heart rate if you want to get benefit from your exercise, but that does not mean your heart should be pounding in your ears (especially if you are unfit - this would suggest you are pushing things too hard, too quickly).
Simply standing rather than sitting involves more effort for your muscles and so raises your heart rate, so if you need to start really slowly then just try sitting down less during the day - sitting down for too long each day can in itself be bad for you, so if there are activities that you currently sit for which you could instead stand for, then do so.
If you do have to sit down a lot, perhaps for your work, make sure you have regular breaks where you get up and walk, even if it is just to go and make yourself a drink (which will also help you keep properly hydrated in a dry, office environment).
To get a bit more active still, walking is a great activity to do in order to get exercise - most people are able to physically do it (at least to some degree), it is a cheap activity, it puts little strain on your joints, and you can go at whatever pace you can manage.
Ideally, to get the best health benefits, you want to work up to a level where you are doing at least 30 minutes of 'moderate intensity' exercise at least five days a week. Moderate intensity means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and start to sweat, but you should still have enough breath to be able to talk. So if walking is your preferred type of exercise, you will probably need to walk fairly briskly to be doing moderate exercise.
It is also suggested that you should be doing muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days a week so you should try to incorporate this too if you can.
However, simply managing 30 minutes of moderate intensity 'aerobic' exercise (exercise that involves some endurance and helps your heart and lungs), five days a week (which is 150 minutes/2.5 hours in total) should still reap large rewards.
Whatever you try to do in order to get more active, try to choose things you enjoy - if your activities are too much of a chore, you will probably not stick at them for very long.
Another tip is to try to incorporate activity into your existing routine as much as possible, for instance by walking to the local shop instead of driving, or washing your car by hand instead of going to the car-wash.
Not only will these things have the added benefit of saving you money, but they will help make moving part of your 'normal' life rather than just being an additional thing you have to especially 'do'.
For more information about diet and exercise, please visit my website LeanerFitteryou.com.
You will find lots of useful advice and suggestions, including articles trying to inspire you with different exercise ideas. You can also sign-up to my newsletter in order to be kept informed when I post new articles or come across diet and fitness tips, news and offers.
Article written by Doug McCarthy © 2014.
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