What kind of activity is right for me?

Physical activity has a positive impact on your health, but some activities may be better than others for reaching your health and wellbeing goals. Improving your fitness benefits your heart, lung and blood vessel health.

You can improve your fitness by activities such as:

• brisk walking
• running
• cycling
• aerobics or water aerobics
• any other activities that make you puff

Strength can be built by:

• progressive training using free weights
• hand and ankle weights
• machine weights
• during other forms of exercise where those muscles are used

Be sure to get the advice of a professional trainer or physiotherapist before starting a strength training program, especially if it has been a long time since you last exercised.

Flexibility is important to develop and maintain a supple body, which like strength, makes tasks in your everyday life easier and decreases the risk of muscle strain and sprain.

Flexibility can be improved through:

• yoga
• Pilates
• Dancing
• Tai Chi
• activities that involve standing on one foot a lot
• even just some gentle stretching while you're at home watching TV

In the end, the best activity for you is an activity that fits in with your lifestyle, is something you can keep doing for a long time, and most importantly, is something you really enjoy.

For more ideas, click here to see the Active Frankston Activity Directory