Harvard Health Blog

The new exercise guidelines: Any changes for you?

POSTED DECEMBER 14, 2018, 6:30 AM
Lauren Elson, MD, Contributor

It’s likely you already know that regular exercise helps prevent chronic disease, such as diabetes and heart problems, while improving your overall health, mood, and quality of life. It can sharpen mental function, boost concentration, and help you sleep. And the new exercise and physical activity guidelines issued by the federal government’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion show that the dose required to gain these benefits is not hard to achieve. The new guidelines are better tailored for age and ability, too.

Learn more »

Get your copy of Starting to Exercise

What can improve your mood, boost your ability to fend off infection, and lower your risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer? The answer is regular exercise. It may seem too good to be true, but it's not. Hundreds of studies demonstrate that exercise helps you feel better and live longer. Starting to Exercise answers many important questions about physical activity. It will also help guide you through starting and maintaining an exercise program that suits your abilities and lifestyle.

More Blogs from Harvard Health

Benefits of a healthy diet — with or without weight loss

Seasons of grief

Intimate partner violence and traumatic brain injury: An “invisible” public health epidemic

Starting to Exercise

Featured content:

•	What can exercise do for you?
•	Should you talk to a doctor first?
•	Getting started: What type of exercise should you do?
•	The workouts
•	Designing your own program
•	... and more!