What is Exercise?

We all intuitively know what exercise is, but we also know that if you ask a doctor a question, he or she is going to try to give you a good scientific explanation as much as possible.  Exercise, then, is any type of physical activity that involves planned, structured, and repetitive bodily movement done to maintain or improve one or more components of physical fitness.  That is a good definition, but it’s pretty easy to see that it also isn’t very specific.  There are a lot of things that count as exercise, and there are different classes of exercise.  I’ll start going through those over the next few days.

Remember: before starting an exercise program, talk with your doctor first.