The “in” word for exercise in the 1990s is aerobics. Aerobic fitness is a measure of how well your heart, lungs, and blood vessels get oxygen to your muscles—in other words, your stamina. You become fitter aerobically by using your larger muscles continuously for a relatively long time. You don’t do so by stopping and starting a lot, as in gardening, golfing, or washing your car. You do become fitter if you continue your exercise until you get slightly out of breath, but can still keep up a conversation.
That is what you should aim at—an exercise lasting around twenty minutes that makes you slightly out of breath, three or four times a week. Don’t be disheartened if you can’t manage it yet, but aim to build up gradually towards that point. Even walking faster than usual for a few minutes is a start towards it, and week by week you will be surprised how much further you can walk before you get to the breathlessness point.
If you are so breathless that you cannot keep up a conversation, or your muscles are getting heavy or sore, then you are working too hard. You will not improve your fitness by exhausting yourself in this way. It is not true that exercise needs to hurt your muscles before it does you good. Muscles that are sore are being starved of oxygen, and that is not the aim!
Obeying this rule means that you should control your own level of exercise, and not be controlled by some outside influence, like the rhythm of music on a tape, or the need to compete with yourself (by, for example, timing your walking speed or distance).
Don’t do too much too quickly. No matter what your exercise, whether it is walking, cycling, running, or swimming, don’t push yourself to go further each time you do it. If your chosen exercise becomes like hard work, you are more likely to give it up, and the more likely you are to be injured. Your aim is to continue for life, and not for just a few weeks.
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