“You don’t need to go to the gym to benefit from exercise: even activities such as walking slowly or washing dishes can significantly boost a person’s longevity, a study has found. Researchers from Norway looked at data on 36,000 people with an average age of 63 whose activity levels were monitored over six years. Any exercise, no matter how light, was associated with a substantially lower risk of death.” The scientists said the “public health message” of their study was: “Sit less and move more and move often.”. (The Week, September 7, 2019)

Their bottom line is “a bit of light exercise is better than no exercise at all”.   I go to a gym for about an hour and a half three times a week, wherever I am.  My wife does even more, walking for an hour every day, before even getting to the gym.  We are typically the oldest people there, every time.   We both find that this regime gives us more energy and alertness, and we get a lot done, more (we both think) than many people our age.  We can do this because we have deliberately made it a habit that we never debate.  I have no problem with the minimalist prescription above – we are entitled to choice.  But now I cannot personally do without the gym.  It’s a form of medicine.