Staying Active

If there is anything close to a fountain of youth, it is exercise.

Exercise reduces your chances of getting a host of illnesses, keeps bones strong and healthy, helps you maintain your vitality and independence in later years, and improves your mood and mental functioning. In short, it can help you live a longer, healthier life. Study after study shows that fitness prolongs life.

Exercise even trumps the risks of some unhealthy lifestyle choices and illnesses.

Over the course of a week, the most balanced exercise routine — and ultimately the healthiest one — emphasizes a combination of aerobic activity, strength training, and flexibility. Regular weight lifting — which can boost bone density, strengthen muscles, and burn calories by raising your metabolic rate — has been found to have aerobic benefits, too. Even the hoeing, weeding, raking, and lifting that goes into gardening delivers aerobic benefits, while strengthening certain muscles and bones. Not only does changing activities help fend off boredom, but in this case it can also give you the satisfaction of improving your health while accomplishing household tasks.

How much exercise should you get? Aim to get at least 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity on most — or, better still, all — days of the week, or try to burn 150 calories a day through exercise and activity. If you are struggling to maintain a healthy weight or need to lose weight, recommends increasing this to 60 or even 90 minutes a day. You can do this in one daily workout or divide it into two or three shorter sessions. If you have the gumption, try more vigorous workouts.

Jogging for 12 minutes accomplishes the same end as walking at 3 mph for 28 minutes, so you may be able to knock off sooner.

Try not to keep an eye on the clock, though. Research suggests that extending exercise sessions for longer periods and exercising with greater intensity offers more health benefits. Remember, too, to bookend structured workouts with several minutes of slow warm-up and cool-down activities.