If you look at all the different ways you can work up a sweat, each of them falls into two categories.  The first, and most popular, is aerobic exercise, which gets your heart pumping and shoots oxygen out into the tissues of the rest of the body.  Strength training is the other less popular category, but equally important, which builds muscles and strengthens bones.  Experts recommend a mix of cardio and strength training:

• Cardio-could include walking, cycling or running
• Strength-might include yoga, weight training or tai chi

And from my past blog posts,  “For those of us who focus more on endurance activities, including a daily stretching/flexibility routine assists in enabling us to exercise without injury.”  Stretching daily is a vital piece of physical fitness!   Include cardio, strength and flexibility into your physical fitness routines.

So much of what we already do is physical activity and exercise historian Dr. Jack Berryman reports that mowing, raking, and washing the car-all are exercise.  He states, “Physical activity includes all movement, not just throwing a ball through a basket.” Exercise has many, many benefits for both your body and your brain.  It also appears to slow aging at the cellular level and has been shown to expand life span by as much as five years.  The New Science of Exercise (Time Magazine, Sept 1/Sept. 19, 2016) by Mandy Oaklander

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky states “If there were a drug that could do for human health everything that exercise can, it would likely be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed”.

As I was walking last weekend, I caught this breath-taking view looking north up Puget Sound from Luana Beach Road on Vashon Island WA. Yes it is fall, the days are shorter and the weather is changing.  Yet it is the perfect season to start implementing your plan to “move more”.