Moderate fitness activities are a kinder, gentler approach and are just as beneficial to longevity as the more intense version of exercise. This kind is less time consuming as you fit it into your daily life activities. Here are some suggestions. Just accumulate 30 minutes of moderate activity per day.

• Park in the back of the parking lot. It will only take a few minutes extra to walk that distance, but it counts.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator- builds cardiovascular strength as well as tones the leg muscles.
• Stretching daily may be the most important thing you do for your health. It reduces stress, tones muscles, makes you more flexible in mind, body, and spirit. It doesn't have to be done all at once. Take 30 to 60 second stretching breaks every 30 to 60 minutes. It will increase your power of concentration and reduce sluggishness.
• Walk on your lunch hour. Bring a nutritious lunch so you won't be tempted by junky fast food, and you'll save time not waiting for service. Even if you just walk around your building for 30 minutes, you'll feel better in the afternoon.
• Make exercise like play. Play with your kids in the backyard; learn to play again as an adult. When exercise is fun and creative, we tend to look forward to doing it. For example, just doing laps in a pool is pretty boring- play water volleyball, or some other game. Or just paddle around and enjoy the feeling of water supporting you.
• Don't make exercise the reason for pigging out on high calorie foods- jogging, for example, only uses about 200 calories per hour.
• If you like to exercise in your own home, invest in a variety of exercise videos, then choose a time you can stick to- no matter what. Nothing prevents you from doing only the parts of the video you like, in fact, combine the good parts of 2 videos to increase the variety.

• Increases overall energy and stamina
• Increases cardiorespiratory functioning and volume
• Increases muscle strength
• Increases muscle endurance
• Increases flexibility and mobility
• Maintains ideal body weight and composition (fat to muscle ratio)
• Improves metabolic functioning and your ability to burn fat as fuel
• Lowers sport and recreational injury rates
• Shortens post-natal recovery time and post-operative recovery time
• Increases sexual desire and confidence
• Reduces likelihood of unhealthy habits such as smoking and poor nutrition
• Improves circulation and increases IQ in older people
• Increases oxygen carrying capacity to the brain resulting in more alertness and mental focus
• Improves mood and reduces depression
• Lowers risk of premature death
• Lowers risk of cancer
• Reduces blood pressure
• Decreases risk of osteoporosis
• Reduces insomnia and promotes more restorative sleep
• Reduces the risk by 2/3 for adult onset diabetes
• Improves the vascular system of the legs
• Reduces arthritis pain
• Relieves irritable bowel, indigestion, and constipation
• And many others!