The AHA publication Fitting in Fitness will help you find the answers.

To experience a taste of what you will discover between the pages of this helpful guide, we've included excerpts from the Introduction of Fitting in Fitness. The book is available in bookstores everywhere.

Fitting In Fitness: Introduction

The Couch Potato Epidemic
We understand your dilemma. For an astounding number of us, walking to the sofa and turning on the TV is the most physical activity we get in a day. Thanks to the ever-ready car, elevators, and sedentary jobs, we hardly have to move at all. And it's costing us plenty in heart disease and stroke, often as early as in midlife.

If you're a couch potato, the good news is that you can help reduce your risk of heart disease simply by filling your day with short bursts of physical activity. You can get the fitness and health benefits you need without a formal, structured exercise program. The Fitting in Fitness handbook is designed to help you get off the sofa and get moving with minimum hassle and maximum results. There's more good news. You don't have to be a jock. You don't have to run a marathon. You just have to move.

Sneaking Up on Fitness
On the pages of Fitting in Fitness, you'll learn how walking the dog, taking out the garbage, shopping, traveling, cleaning house, and gardening can actually improve your overall fitness and give you health benefits of regular exercise.

Although these activities do get you up and moving, they don't seem at all like "exercise." These and hundreds of other simple, everyday activities will help you burn calories and help improve your overall fitness.

Research to the Rescue
Interestingly, this book wouldn't have been possible a short time ago. Until then, medical scientists and physiologists thought that only regular, sustained, vigorous activity provided cardiovascular health benefits. But recent research has revealed an amazing fact: People who are moderately active on a regular basis can reap some of the health benefits of more vigorous levels of physical activity. Some recent studies have shown that just being more active can help us feel better, as well as reduce our risk of heart disease. That's why the AHA developed Fitting in Fitness. And the more physically active you are, the more benefits you receive.

It's true that playing sports for thirty minutes can also give you the health benefits you need, but that not what Fitting in Fitness is all about. We're offering a "lifestyle approach" to physical activity. We're suggesting that you can simply "fit in fitness" with your current lifestyle. How? By adding short segments of physical activity to your everyday routine. This approach works if you're totally sedentary now and want to get up and get moving. It also works if you're somewhat active and want to supplement your regular exercise routine.

On the pages of Fitting in Fitness, you'll find ways to fit in fitness at home, at work, on the road, with your kids, and when you least expect to be able to. We'll show you hundreds of ways to pack your day with physical activity - and your life with fitness and health.