Small Changes Can Add Up to Big Benefits

If you're like many people who've vowed to "shape up," your resolve generally crumbles within weeks of your resolution. The sad fact is that despite the best intentions, half of all adults who begin a new exercise program quit within six months.

While these fitness dropouts tend to see themselves as exercise failures, the real problem is often the classic mistake of doing too much too soon. One prime example is what fitness experts call the "the January 1st" approach, when people vow to bring in the new year with weight loss: After the six-week holiday "eating season," people who've been inactive for years lace up their sneakers and work out with a vengeance. Typically these over-zealous exercisers get injured or frustrated and stop exercising. Many never start again.

This all-too-familiar "failed fitness" scenario relies on the common misconception that exercise is an "either-or" phenomenon: You either go to the gym for an hour or do nothing. But new research demonstrates that exercise isn't an all or nothing proposition and that activity need not be lengthy -- or even sweaty -- to have significant health benefits. In fact, it doesn't have to be "exercise" at all.

"Every step you take counts toward better health," says Andrea Dunn, director of Project Active at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. Her study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), concludes that accumulating small amounts of physical activity throughout your day can provide health benefits similar to those you'd get from a traditional gym workout.