If you don’t know how many stairs there are from the basement parking to your office (because you always use the lifts) – you need to keep reading. Or if your 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week (the Mayo clinic’s recommended minimum) includes pizza-lifting or bath-running or paper-pushing as activities for your smart watch. Let’s consider the obvious benefits of exercise first – the why before the what.

1 – increase in work productivity

People who exercise regularly focus better at work (concentration intensity and duration), have better mental endurance, and improved mental agility. Thus you can make better decisions (like when to go home) and survive longer meetings.

2 – weight control

Certainly the magic formula for weight loss is input versus output (you cannot outrun your fork or the uber eats delivery guy) but exercise increases metabolic rate (burns calories) and helps develop lean muscle mass (burns more calories), as well as helping stabilise your appetite (you eat less calories). And 20% of cancer deaths could be linked to obesity if you needed a different angle.

3 – lower disease risk

Absolute data support for reduced LDL cholesterol (therefore improved cardiovascular health); reduced stroke risk; improved hypertension control; reduced type 2 diabetes and glucose intolerance; reduced anxiety and depression; even certain cancers (breast, prostate, colon, uterus) show decreased incidence in regular exercisers.

4 – lifestyle boost

Improved sleep patterns (reduced insomnia) related probably to hormonal balancing / improved sex life (I can explain the specifics but perhaps not in this document) / improved mood (various neurotransmitters released in exercise including dopamine and serotonin lead to this) / improved general energy levels – what’s not to like……

5 – it’s fun. Ok, not training for Ironman, but certainly jogging or biking or hiking up a mountain with a friend.

What exercise should you do ?

Honestly, anything you can – as long as you can sustain it, repeat it and maybe have some fun doing it. Check with a professional first if you have something medical underlying or a fit memory (delusions of fitness) and nothing else.

If gym is your thing, go pump some iron. Just do some cardio at least twice a week.

If you like the outside – jog / run / walk even – just do it fast enough so that you get a bit breathless (ie if you can chat easily to your exercise buddy, you probably need to up your effort.) Use decent running shoes especially if you’ve had foot or knee issues.

If you prefer legs going round and round and not up and down – get on your bike. Indoor trainer / spinning classes / mountain biking trails / on the road / or just cruising round your neighbourhood – it’s all good. Remember no earphones when training outside – you can’t hear the problem coming your way.

Swimming is also great cardio and very low impact (injury friendly) and rowing is not bad either if you keep your back straight.

And golf is not real exercise in my opinion as a non-golfer – unless you put weights in your bag and sprint between shots. It’s a bit like calling curling a winter sport or arguing that e-sports is in fact a sport.

Happy sweating…