Exercise and Fitness Archive

Regular, moderate-intensity dancing may lower the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. Aside from the exercise benefits, dancing is often a lifelong habit and provides stress-lowering social connections. 

Dancing, playing sports, and even cleaning your house can give you a nontraditional workout that helps maintain good health.

 Image: Jon Feingersh/Thinkstock

Exercising is supposed to be a regular part of your daily health maintenance. That can be a problem if you don't have the motivation to get your heart pumping; you raise your risk for weight gain, chronic disease, and an earlier death.

Fortunately, you can get plenty of effective exercise by engaging in recreational or household activities that work your heart and muscles. "There's a real reward in doing an activity you enjoy, such as swimming or playing with your grandchildren. You get a workout, but it doesn't seem like you're exercising, and you may be more willing to keep doing that activity every day because it's fun," says Dawn Rogers, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Get your life back by learning new ways to do once-simple activities that are now challenging.

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Occupational therapy (OT) is well known as part of recovery for people who've had a stroke or surgery: it helps them relearn everyday activities and adjust to doing them differently. But OT can also make a difference for people struggling with the physical changes that accompany aging, such as hand arthritis or hip or knee problems that cause pain and problems with mobility. "We teach people how to approach activities differently so they can keep pain under control while doing what they want to do. It's all about maintaining independence," says Allison Pinsince, an occupational therapist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

How OT works

It appears that four healthy habits—getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, maintaining a body mass index between 18.5 and 27.5, no smoking, and drinking only in moderation—may prevent many cancer cases and death in white people.

It appears people with the highest levels of physical activity have lower rates of cancer of the esophagus, lung, kidney, colon, head and neck, rectum, bladder and breast, compared with people with the lowest levels of physical activity.

How many times your heart beats per minute when you’re resting — also known as your resting heart rate (RHR) — can provide important clues to your current overall health and even predict possible future health problems.

With an emphasis on proper speed and form, a regular walking routine can make great strides toward improving your health.

A dedicated walking program can be your main source of exercise.
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Walking is the oldest exercise, but nowadays it tends to be recommended only for people who have trouble staying active, have mobility issues, or are recovering from an injury or surgery. Yet you should rethink the role walking can play in your overall fitness.

Body mass index (BMI) is still the best way to assess body fat for most people.

Lifestyle measures can help to minimize postmenopausal weight gain and maximize health.

Exercise is healthy and safe for most folks. For kids, young adults, seniors, people who are healthy, and people who have medical issues, moderate activity is usually safe and does plenty to improve health, energy, and well-being.

How can you judge the pace of your workout? The easiest way to see how hard you're working is to describe your effort using broad categories, such as light, moderate, or vigorous (see the table below). This categorization, called "perceived exertion," is a good way to help you exercise safely. As you improve your fitness, you'll find your perception of an activity's intensity will change. For example, you might find that you are no longer short of breath when walking up a nearby hill or climbing the stairs.