CR.ORG GUIDE TO WELLNESS 75everyone can tolerate the pounding,
especially on a hard surface.
If you’re worried about stress on your
joints, exercising on an elliptical
might be a good way to get an aerobic
workout without the impact of run-
ning or jogging, especially if you’re look-
ing for a higher-intensity activity. (For
top elliptical picks, see “How to Choose
the Right Machine,” on page 76.)
For variety, try swimming, biking,
group exercise classes, dancing, hiking,
or sports such as tennis.Make Every Minute Count
You can shave some time off your exer-
cise routine by upping its intensity.
You need only a minimum of 75 minutes
of vigorous exercise per week. Even
walking can be a vigorous workout if
you pick up the pace, walk uphill,
or increase the speed and/or incline
if you’re using a treadmill.
Remember that some activity is better
than no activity. Studies have shown
that even 20 to 60 minutes of moderate
exercise once or twice per week
will provide at least some health ben-
efits. And a small study found that even
10 minutes of easy exercise seems
to have a positive effect on brain func-
tion immediately afterward.CR.ORG GUIDE TO WELLNESS 75Build Exercise Into
Your Daily Life
Picking a cue that turns exercise
into a habit can help you build a rou-
tine that you’ll actually stick with.
That could mean always jumping on
the treadmill right after you brush your
teeth or stopping at the gym on
your way home from work each day.
Making a detailed, concrete plan
rather than setting a general, over-
arching goal can also help you follow
through, says Katherine L. Milkman,
Ph.D., a professor at the Wharton
School of the University of Pennsyl-
vania and co-director of the Behavior
Change for Good Initiative. “Block out
in your calendar the dates and times
you intend to work out this week,” she
says. One study found that people who
joined a gym and went four times per
week could develop a habit that stuck
with them in as little as six weeks.
So try getting consistent exercise
you really enjoy. “When you find ways
to make exercise fun, you’re more
likely to do it than when you only fo-
cus on how it will be effective,” Milk-
man says. You’ll see improvements in
your health and mood quickly, and
before long you’ll be asking yourself
Source: CDC. why you didn’t start sooner.WHO’S
ON THE
MOVEPercentage of adults who
are aerobically active
at least 5 hours per week,
twice the minimum
recommended.55-6455-6465 +65 +45-5445-5435-4435-4425-3425-3419 %27 % 27 %30 %32 %40 %22 %25 %28 %32 %Percentage of adults
who don’t engage
in any leisure-time
physical activity.of workouts and being con-
nected through a phone app
or the internet, so you can
track your workout history,”
Anzalone says. “Physicians can
even ‘prescribe’ exercise and
then monitor their patients to
see how they’re doing.”
Some treadmills and ellipti-
cals now offer program options
via a monthly subscription, and
many let you track your dis-
tance, speed, and even heart
rate over time using an app.
The ability to join remote
classes while at home is one of
the more recent innovations.Peloton popularized this trend
with its stationary bike.
And with its pricey new tread-
mill, The Peloton Tread, you
can exercise live (or on demand)
with an instructor who will
take you through walking, run-
ning, and even strength-based
workouts (the treadmill comes
with hand weights.)
Fitness-tracking options
are also becoming more com-
mon on exercise machines.
Of our recommended tread-
mills, the NordicTrack Com-
mercial 2450, Xterra TRX4500,
and Bowflex BXT216 canconnect to fitness apps or inter-
net-based programs to help
you track your exercise progress.
Wearable activity trackers,
such as the Fitbit or Apple
Watch, track steps, heart rate,
calories burned, and other
workout stats, and even inex-
pensive apps that you
can download to your smart-
phone offer basic activity-
tracking capabilities.
Though simple fitness track-
ers might encourage increased
activity and weight loss, experts
caution that just wearing
one or downloading a trackingapp to your smartphone isn’t
a magic bullet.
“On their own, these devices
generally aren’t enough to
change behaviors,” says
Matthew Buman, Ph.D., an
associate professor in the
College of Health Solutions at
Arizona State University. “You
need education and support
to really make it work.”
Studies have found that
having a support network,
such as an online group of peo-
ple with similar goals, can
make it easier to stick with
healthy lifestyle changes.