When you are getting started, it is important to build up your exercise routine gradually. Then, as your endurance level increases, cardiovascular efficiency builds, and you can do more while exerting less energy.

For instance, if you’re taking 20-minute brisk walks and not experiencing enough exertion, you might want to increase the amount of time you spend on your walk.

Or you could start walking up a slight incline to further challenge yourself. Achieving such minor milestones makes us feel good about ourselves, and motivates us to keep pushing forward.

If you don’t have enough time to work out for long periods, briefer sessions can provide important health benefits as well.

Recent research has shown that multiple, brief exercise sessions — as short as three 10-minute sessions each day — are as effective for controlling weight and lowering risk for heart disease as a single half-hour session.

The key to a successful physical exercise program is that it is not only challenging, but fun and satisfying too.

As we age, we may need to adjust to physical limitations or consider new and different exercise activities and levels.

While touch football might have been your sport of choice as a teenager, a few sets of tennis or racquetball may be a safer way to go as you get older. Even table tennis challenges the mind and improves brain health.

A regimen of physical exercise combined with a healthy diet, stress management, and mental stimulation is the ideal formula for better mind health for life.