You don’t have to be an exercise fanatic to reap the benefits of increased physical activity. Adding just a little activity to your daily routine can have major benefits, no matter what your current age is. Even fifteen to thirty minutes of walking each day is probably enough to gain substantial health benefits, provided you increase your pulse rate to higher than one hundred beats per minute. However, our exercise plan will require you to do thirty minutes of different types of formal exercise each day, five days a week, which is still not a lot considering the positive outcomes that you’ll experience from doing it, such as looking and feeling younger than your chronological age. Walking a small dog and stopping frequently every time it does its business—while a fun and necessary activity—would not be considered a formal program of exercise. On the other hand, carrying the dog and walking swiftly around the block for the requisite amount of time would be.
As soon as you pass the age of thirty, other types of physical activity become more important as well, particularly exercises that help you maintain your balance and improve your posture. So your exercise plan will include working on five important types of activities during the week: endurance, resistance, balance, posture, and flexibility. On any one day, you can choose to focus on just one area or a combination of areas. Try to be practical with what you do; choose a few exercises instead of a long list, and vary what you do on a regular basis to get optimal benefits and to stay motivated to continue with your program.
While a block of planned exercise done regularly is undeniably important for staying younger, you also need to concentrate on increasing your daily movement doing anything, your so-called spontaneous physical activity. By doing so, you can even more dramatically improve your well-being and levels of physical and mental fitness. We will discuss the simple means by which you can increase this informal component of activity .
