For Better Health in New Year, Add Exercise to Your Day
Thirty minutes is all it takes, says exercise expert
(HealthDay News) — Want to feel more fit in 2010?
A professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says adding a half hour of exercise a day is the key to a healthier lifestyle.
“People don’t realize you can get tremendous benefit from regular physical activity even if you never lose a pound,” Peter Brubaker in a news release from the school.
Brubaker, director of the healthy exercise and lifestyle programs at Wake Forest, has these suggestions about how to get more exercise each day:
- Don’t feel like you need to exercise all at once. A few minutes here and there can add up to what you need.
- Walk. It’s efficient and easy. If you wear a pedometer to track your mileage, studies suggest you’ll boost your activity.
- Find ways to get exercise in your daily routine through things like taking the stairs.
- Track your exercise in a journal and don’t worry so much about weight loss. If you do want to shed pounds, 60 minutes of exercise a day is a good place to start.
- Try a variety of activities and challenge your family and friends to join you in exercising 30 minutes a day.
- Set realistic expectations. Change takes time.
More information
The National Institutes of Health has exercise tips.
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