ARE YOU DOING THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF EXERCISE?

There is no such thing as good exercise or bad exercise - it is just the way you do your exercise and for the amount of time you do it that is important. All exercise is good.
But it is always better to do a combination of exercises, not only because it stops you from getting bored, but also different exercises help different parts of the body.

However, this does not mean that if you are going for a morning walk or jog everyday you should stop that and do something else. It only means that you can add something more to it.

For instance a high intensity game of squash or tennis once or twice a week will help your physical fitness and stamina. So will swimming, golf, soccer or whatever kind of sports you like.

If you can manage two or three different physical activities in a week, so much the better. You can even program your holidays towards physical activities - a beach holiday for swimming in summer, a ski holiday for skiing in winter and so on.

How does exercise help? Apart from helping in physical fitness, weight loss and increasing your energy levels, exercise raises the metabolic rate of the body.

If your resting pulse rate is 70, then you should aim to get it to more than 100 by doing 15-20 minutes of exercise everyday. Any exercise that raises the basal metabolic rate should also increase the heart rate by 50-60% and sustain that rate for 10-20 minutes. for it to be effective

If physical exercise is not your forte, if you have say knee problems and do not want to be running because it will increase the stress on weight bearing joints, you can consider swimming because apart from being a great form of exercise, it does not put pressure on the joints.

Or you can try Yoga or Pilates which are gentler but very effective forms of exercise.

Once you get into the habit of exercising and also eating the right kind of diet, you will notice a positive change in yourself.

Your weight will be within the normal range, your physical fitness will improve and your dependence on tobacco and alcohol (if you have dependence) will decrease.

Your sleep patterns will improve and your stress will also reduce. So it will benefit you in more ways than one.