Practice smiling in front of a mirror ☺

It's important to find a sport to keep fit your body that is funny enough for you to be practised often enough to reach a good training, but, on the other hand, you need to train yourself well in order to find funny enough whatever sport....well it s difficult equilibrium. Take an activity funny enough and tiring enough ( cycling walking gim with the music ) try to do it often and see if it get funnier and less tiring. If not try with another activity. If possible with some nice people and in a nice place. Keep the constance.

A recent article in Lancet Psychiatry (doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30227-X) looked at the relationship between a wide range of different forms of exercise, including many sports, and mental health in over 1 million people. They also studied the amount of exercise needed to influence mental health.This article may answer you question on certain sports and methods of keeping the body fit.

Simon N Young

The mentioned study was a meta-analysis. We must not have the impression that the more data, the more reliable or valid the results.The data collected on well-being or negative mental health problems were subjective data. The correlation between subjective and measured data on individual health, normally,is in the middle range. It's an interesting study, but it doesn't go beyond expected correlations in its general meaningfulness, is my assessment. But thanks, for the note.

Hein Retter

Actually it was an original study, not a meta-analysis. Of course humans show great variability in anything you measure, but the use of a study like that is in making suggestions about what any individual might want to try.

Thanks for the information, dear Simon, probably my judgement has been somewhat superficial, but it is not intended to give the impression that I don't appreciate such a study. But I really didn't study it thoroughly, in earlier times I had to do with statistics more, and today not much depends on my private judgment. Thank you for your clues.

Hein

Addendum: There was a time when jogging was seen as a recommendable means for a simple or even the simplest form of healthy exercise. It is now clear that the signs of wear on joints and the risk of osteoarthritis are significant. Nordic Walking without a great pace seems to provide better services for health in old age.

Practice smiling in front of a mirror ☺

Zin Eddine Dadach

That's a very amusing suggestion, even if I don't consider it very weighty in terms of a measurable output of my athletic performance. But seriously: To meet yourself now and then in the mirror and to become clear is helpful: That arel you! That's how other people see you. People who are close to me sometimes tell me I look a little dark. When I see myself in a mirror, perhaps that is true too. When I then try to smile, I feel artificial somehow, but probably you should pay more attention not to look very dismissive when you meet other people. Because there are people who smile all the time, they can't help themselves. That wouldn't be my thing either. So now I think more often of smiling when I think of it. Thank you, Hein Retter

You might either go for a methodological study that tells you what type of exercise is best, or rather rely on personal experience. First off: all studies agree on one thing, starting to move is good for you. They disagree on what type of movement it should be. From my personal point of view: if moving is important, choosing an exercise where the likelyhood of repeating it is more likely than with others. If you choose an exercise because a study tells you so, but it is annoying and you do not enjoy it, chances are, that you will stop doing it, whereas an exercise that a study would not rank that high, but that you personally enjoy is more likely to make you stick to it and in doing so you keep on moving. Problem solved.

Now, what type of exercise you should be doing is completely up to you and I do not know your preferences and what you enjoy. I can only tell you about why I am doing what I am doing and what makes me stick to it. And taking that into consideration might help you to narrow down the type of sport you might want to do.

I am one of them gymnats who hit the gym at least four times a week, including weight lifting, barbells, dumbbells, smith machine, the whole array of bench-press, side laterals, deadlifts, pullover, chin-ups and whatnot. I do know that some people would consider it boring, but it does have its advantages. For once, you can plan easily. Gym is not depending on weather, you can set your schedule to your liking and you can train for endurance as well as strenthening your muscles. If you had an injury, you can train to get over it and so forth. Machines make it a great choice for people of age or with health issues as well as for the young who want to build up muscles or for those who try to loose weight. It is a variety of options I am talking about. Having your schedule set is key. I train on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and I need that routine.

Another advantage is that you can always check your progress, no matter whether we are talking about the number of repetitions with medium or leight weight or with heavy weight. You can count what you lifted and how often you lifted it, you can add a number of exercises for one muscle group, use machines to single out certain body parts or choose compound exercises. As soon as you start to train there will be progress. Good thing with the gym: you can count progress, jot down the numbers and actually see where you are coming from and where you are at and that is very self-assuring and encouraging, no matter what your goal is.

Stephan Glienke

Many thanks for the detailed presentation of their experiences. Such a report will interest many RG users. I walk with walking sticks twice a day. Fitness study would only interest me as a change and new experience, but is too far away from my desk at home. The forest is a bit closer to me. Thank you very much for your report!.

Hein Retter

The best sport you can do every day "to get rid of stress and tiredness after doing hard work, is to walk half an hour a day", studies and research indicate the best time to exercise and maintain body fitness is early morning, can exercise with breathing fresh air to replenish Air in the lungs and maintain the health of the body

Fatima Faiq

I think that's absolutely correct. And it is good that the most important answers to this question are probably the same worldwide. I also suspect - but this is only my personal experience - that women give this advice to their husbands rather than vice versa. Anyway, my wife always tells me to get some fresh air because I'm always sitting so unhealthy in front of the computer. I believe that other husbands have similar experience.

I think yoga should do it for you.