Image: Pexels/Julia Larson

When I write about the health benefits of physical activity, readers often comment about the impediments of busy lives, old age, chronic pain or other limitations. Exercise can indeed be extremely challenging for some people. But physical activity — the term I prefer — can take many forms, all beneficial, mostly not that hard, and often loads of fun.

If you are able to move, then don’t let time, age, pain, or ability get in your way. With a modest amount of activity, you can …

• Improve your sleep
• Reduce stress and better manage emotions
• Lower the risk of heart attack, cancer and other diseases
• Sharpen memory and thinking skills and reduce the risk of dementia
• Alleviate chronic pain
• Find more joy

Physical activity will make you more productive and better at the things you have to do, so you’ll have more time and energy to do the things you want to do. Excuses will evaporate.

If you’re totally sedentary or have any underlying health condition, see a medical professional before embarking on any new or more strenuous efforts. “Moving more and sitting less have tremendous benefits for everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, or current fitness level, states the U.S. government’s Physical Activity Guidelines. “Individuals with a chronic disease or a disability benefit from regular physical activity, as do women who are pregnant.” If you have a disability, seek help from a doctor or fitness expert, such as a Certified Inclusive Fitness Trainer, to determine appropriate alternatives, which could include aquatic therapy, rowing or wheelchair sports (more info here and here).

Step 1: Take baby steps

Whatever activities you choose, start slow, build up gradually over several weeks, and aim to enjoy yourself.

The goal is to work toward the minimum recommendation of 150 minutes a week of moderate activity, somewhere between “conversation is easy” and “you can hear your breathing but you’re not out of breath,” plus a couple days a week of strength training, which doesn’t have to mean hitting the gym, as you’ll learn below.

If you can’t do 150 minutes a week, no problem. Do what you can. Every minute matters. Perhaps start with three minutes and set a goal to reach five, for example. Ideally, put more than one trick in your bag — variety can be the spice of a more active life. And note that the minimum recommended threshold, which amounts to 22 minutes a day, can come all in one go, or a minute here, a few minutes there, or in larger batches on just a few days each week — say, 30 minutes per weekday with weekends off. There are no rules, studies have shown, other than the importance of working toward the weekly minimum.

Walking

This most basic human activity can be the foundation for the new you. If you’re able to amble, take advantage of your good fortune. Don’t worry about your pace. Just get out there. Or walk around the couch a few times. As you gradually become more fit, extend the distance. Or, you can walk faster and get the same benefit in a shorter period of time. There are numerous ways to informally stack up some walking minutes.

• Find any excuse for short walks: the dog that has to pee; a child that needs to put their screen down and see some sunshine; an errand that’s silly to drive to.
• If you sit a lot for work, set a reminder every half-hour to stand up and take a short break — even if just a few steps.
• Instead of wasting gas trying to get the best parking spot, lower your stress level and park where nobody else does, then get some extra steps in.
• Take the stairs (vigorously, if you can) instead of an elevator whenever you have the opportunity.
• If you use a cane or a walker or otherwise aren’t able to get up or out much, set small goals like getting your own glass of water instead of asking for one. Walkers and canes should serve as assists, not as barriers, experts say.

If walking bores you or is problematic, don’t stress. There are numerous other low-impact activities that will serve you just as well.

Biking

If you can hop on a real bike and ride in a safe place, you’ll double your benefit, since spending time in broad daylight helps set your body clock so you’ll sleep better. But a stationary bike is a fine workout, too. Here’s all you need to know about the value of biking: Most clinical studies on the benefits of aerobic exercise use either a treadmill or a stationary bike to get peoples’ blood pumping.

Biking is a fantastic, nearly zero-impact alternative to running for anyone who finds running painful.

“I am 69 years old and my knees caused me so much pain I couldn’t walk,” Eric Nelson commented upon reading an article I wrote on the benefits of physical activity for arthritis sufferers. “I finally got back onto my bicycle and rode short distances at first, and now, after only a few months, can ride five or six miles easily, without pain.”

My experience is similar. I was once a pretty serious runner, did lots of 10ks and one marathon, but those days are behind me. Yet I can mountain bike for hours, and I love it — and it only hurts when I fall.

Yoga

Yoga is not the foo-foo hippy activity you might think. It’s a serious form of workout that can be as easy or as hard as you wish, and yields phenomenal results for the whole body (and the mind). Because yoga can be both gentle and strenuous, it is particularly beneficial to people who’ve had heart trouble. It’s been shown to relieve chronic back pain. And it’s good for the brain, increasing volume in the hippocampus similar to other, common aerobic workouts.

“The practice of yoga helps improve emotional regulation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression,” said Neha Gothe, PhD, a kinesiology and community health professor at the University of Illinois. “And that seems to improve brain functioning.”

Once dominated by women, yoga classes have become increasingly popular among men, and in people over 50. Just ask me.

From my 20s into my 40s, I competed in triathlons. By my 50s, chronic back and hip pain ended my running days. Forever, I thought. But then about a year ago I finally acquiesced to pressure from my wife and took up yoga. I’m just an anecdote, but the core strengthening and flexibility from yoga has remade my body. At 60, I can run again, albeit slowly and not for more than a few miles, but I can’t describe the joy it brings.

It’s highly recommended that you start by taking a class or finding a quality online instructor. As I wrote previously:

Seek an instructor who is calm and cautious, encouraging but not overzealous, and a program that starts with total basics.

Experts caution that overdoing yoga poses can worsen chronic pain or cause new injury, so it’s important to get it right. Pain is definitely not gain.

I mentioned to a friend and fellow runner and biker how yoga had fixed me. She replied in an email: “Yes, yoga fixes a lot of my fitness/mechanical problems. I used to say that it’s my baseline/foundation activity that makes all other activities possible (however with covid, I haven’t done much yoga in 2.5 years because I am still avoiding gyms/studios for workouts).”

I’m sending this article to her with an important note: There are a gazillion yoga instructors on YouTube, so there’s no excuse not to do it from home. I am no yoga expert, but I’ve learned enough moves to do brief sessions on my own, at home on a mat, in front of the TV during commercials, or while camping. No excuses.

Tai Chi

Among the most gentle forms of exercise, tai chi is somewhat like yoga in that it engages the mind as much as the body. It could be called “medication in motion,” Harvard experts say.

Tai chi improves strength, balance and flexibility. It’s been found to be as effective as conventional exercise in reducing waist size in people with obesity. Like yoga, you’ll want to learn the proper techniques, so taking a class is the best way to start.

“Tai chi can be easily adapted for anyone, from the most fit to people confined to wheelchairs or recovering from surgery,” the Harvard experts write. “Tai chi is very safe, and no fancy equipment is needed, so it’s easy to get started.”

Weightlifting or other resistance training

You don’t have to pump iron to build muscle or otherwise enjoy the benefits of strength training. Weightlifting is indeed a fine way to exercise, with overall benefits on par with aerobic workouts.

You can use your own body weight to do a variety of strength-building exercises, as simple as super-healthy planks or push-ups (regular or on your knees). Resistance bands — cheap stretchy things — are a great way to ease into resistance training.

If you want to mix strengthening with aerobic work, and do it on your own at home, see these whole-body workouts designed by Kelli Calabrese, an exercise physiologist, nutrition expert, and wellness coach.

The American Council on Exercise has a library of videos that explain how to do just about any exercise, with or without weights, properly and safely. Just scrolling through it can be motivating.

Note that yoga can be both an aerobic workout and serve as strength training — it all depends on how it’s approached.

Swimming

Swimming is an excellent workout — good for the heart while working a lot of muscles you otherwise might not put to use on a regular basis. And it’s ideal for some people who suffer chronic pain.

“Because performing exercise in water can decrease the impact of body weight on your joints, swimming can be an ideal form of exercise for achieving many goals, ranging from heart health, weight loss, pain management and arthritis management,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. Also: “Physical therapy in the water can be beneficial for a variety of individuals with neuromuscular or musculoskeletal disorders.”

But since it’s best done in water, swimming is by nature rather exclusionary. If you have access to something larger than a bathtub, however, take advantage of it.

Running

I shoved running way down here because if you love to run, you’re quite likely already jogging, enjoying that endorphin rush that only runners can explain, maybe even training hard to earn that next T-shirt.

But running is a slog at first, and so possibly not the ideal way to start getting in shape. And it can lead to injury, including painful shin splints or stress fractures if you run too much, too soon. So if you decide to take it up, learn how to run and how to train properly, ease into it, and don’t increase your distance by more than 10% a week.

Those caveats in mind, running is excellent exercise. And contrary to popular belief, there’s no evidence that running contributes to arthritis.

Get creative

The best exercise is no exercise at all. It’s just fun. Developing a solid base of fitness with walking or any of the above ideas is important. But there’s more to life than long walks, right? Aim to embrace fun activities. Be a weekend warrior or engage in seasonal activities like kayaking or snow-shoeing. Take up dancing or gardening. Join a night-league sports team or sign up for an activity at the local community center.

A study last month found that older adults who participate weekly in leisure activities like swimming or golf have a much lower risk of death. Weekly participation in tennis or other racket sports, for example, was linked to a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular death. Among other similarly beneficial activities cited in the study: walking, jogging, cycling or “other aerobic exercise.”

The point is clear: Move! I also highly recommend trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone.

It had been years since I water skied or wakeboarded when we rented a boat last week and did both. Even though I’m in shape, the unique demands of these activities left me gloriously sore all over, reminding me of muscles I’d forgotten. The soreness was similarly extensive when our son insisted we go climbing at an indoor rock wall last month.

Mixing it up motivates me to stick with the yoga, biking, walking or hiking and a bit of jogging I do regularly — not just for basic health, but so I can enjoy life more.

Find the motivation

The path to more activity and better physical and mental well-being runs through something you love to do. Figure that out, then all you need to do is muster the motivation to get started and stick with it. There are several proven methods for doing so: enlist a workout buddy; set small goals that you can achieve and celebrate; and tell someone about your goals, so you’ll be made accountable.

An activity tracker can be a great motivator. Don’t get caught up trying to achieve some ungodly number of steps (10,000 is not necessary). But use the device to remind you when you’re being too lazy for too long.

If you need help with motivation, check out my 9-point plan for finding your mountain, real or virtual, and climbing it. Then get moving.

Your support makes my health reporting and writing possible, so you can sign up to receive an email when I publish a story on Medium, or become a Medium member to directly support me and other writers and gain full access to all Medium stories. My new book, “Make Sleep Your Superpower,” is coming Nov. 1 (details on my website). — Rob