Staying Active

Staying in Life's Game: Exercise Boosts Health

There was a time in the distant past when people of a certain age were expected to get their "exercise" in a rocking chair. But that day is gone, and jogging shoes and sweat suits are becoming closer to the norm than the familiar rocker.

Whether you exercise purely for enjoyment, or for the practical physical and mental benefits, you're bound to come out ahead: if the list of studies showing the positive connection between fitness and health were laid end to end, they'd form a sizeable walking track.

Researchers have shown that exercise can strengthen your muscles (including your heart), and help maintain aerobic capacity—the important ability of your lungs, heart, and blood vessels to deliver oxygen throughout your body. What’s more, regular physical activity can help prevent or reduce diabetes, depression, heart attack and stroke, high blood pressure, falls, and even some types of cancer.

This section's articles offer a handy overview of the exercise landscape: from fine-tuning your current exercise routine, to beginning a program from scratch even if you've never been workout-minded in the past.