Some good advice

Always make sure your footwear is appropriate for the activity and comfortable.  Footwear is more important than any other piece of clothing or equipment.  General trainers are usually not good enough for hiking, running or jogging, badminton, squash, tennis etc.  Advice should be sought from specialist sports shops for these activities.  It is worth investing a few extra pounds as this will protect your feet, legs, knees, back and hips, and the shoes will last much longer.

Try to prepare your body for the activity by warming up for about 10-15 minutes and take about 10 minutes to cool down.  This will allow your body to recover and eliminate all the waste products from your muscles. 

The activity you choose should make you warm, breathe more heavily, increase your heart rate and be enjoyable.  Try the ‘talk test’.   Whenever you exercise you should be able to conduct a conversation at the same time.  If you feel silly talking to yourself, take a friend, it will do them good too.  You should be able to ‘Talk’ not ‘Sing’.  If you can sing you’re not working hard enough.  

To get the most out of your activity you should be working at a rate that will benefit your heart and lungs without straining them.  On an activity scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is doing nothing and 10 working flat out, you should feel that you are working at about level 5 or 6.

Make sure you have a drink handy, especially if it is a hot day.   Avoid drinking alcohol just before or after exercise as it will make you dehydrate and the effect of the alcohol will be much more noticeable. 

The metabolism is more efficient after exercise so it is better to eat following your activity and this helps to control your weight, which can be a problem as you get older.

Just
half an hour a day
of moderate intensity physical activity
will help to keep you healthy!

 OR

10,000 steps a day

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