how many hours

If only I could exercise! When every step is painful due to arthritis in knees then walking is very difficult but I do follow a seated exercise routine on YouTube as often as possible. I find even popping to the shops exhausting so tend to go daily to a small local store just for a few things. I used to love gardening but can only manage patio pots now so have to pay someone to tame the jungle! However, I have managed to lose 1 1/2 stone through diet alone recently (although that has not improved my mobility or reduced the pain) so hopefully I can have some new knees soon and then there will be no stopping me!

Like Saggi I to have succumbed to wearing a Fitbit, although there are times I do not reach my target I do try. It is quite uplifting when I do actually reach it then the device flashed fireworks! The reminders to move or to ' take me for a walk' are a tad annoying especially when I am in the middle of a good book.

I wear a 'fit-bit' which measures activity during the day. On Mondays and Tuesday I take to and pick up grandchild from school. I don't drive so although I could bus I usually walk and do 12 miles ( approx) on those two days. Wednesday and Thursday its just pick up and I do about 5 miles each of those days. Wednesday and Sunday I swim. Saturday do any desperately needed housework if I feel like it. I only sleep about 4/5 hours per night but I seem to do alright on it. Also my 'fit-bit' will 'tell' me when I've been sitting over an hour. Usually tell it to shut up! I am 68 and am reasonably fit I think although can't say I eat that healthily. And I like a brandy in the evening. Who doesn't??

Usually the mornings are the busiest time for me, especially in this hot weather. If there is any housework to do the dreaded ironing it’s cooler and easier to work.
I do pace myself. Only do certain things each day, we live in a flat and could quite easily do vacuuming of all the rooms in one day but I don’t.
Like to have the time to myself in the afternoon.

I hate housework so the bare minimum gets done, I'd rather be out in my garden, just pottering about most of the time. I can only walk fairly short distances but do walk to my local shop unless I'm going on somewhere else.

I try not to sit on my laptop not literally for too long, tv is on as I sit at my dining table doing crosswords, reading newspaper or using laptop, but I get up frequently to get a drink/make meals/wash up etc. If I'm in the garden & my back starts to hurt then it's retire indoors for a while. I do things in "bite sized" chunks now rather than tackling an entire room in one go.

I started going to Pilates, a gentle?? class which I love, I struggle sometimes but I am enjoying it

I'm doing my ironing between other jobs as it's raining today

My mother's idea of exercise was to sit at the kitchen table with the back door open.

She lived to be 96!

I swim several times a week and attend a rehab Pilates class weekly. However I do sit a lot though I do try and move and use a bit [and I mean a bit] of time to do some housework - although that's gone to pot in this weather

I might seem as if I m on the computer a lot but I go on it in between the various jobs and daily doings and it ll be half an hour here or there
I’m in my little garden a lot , cycling to town, shopping , friends etc Meeting up for coffee or meal and voluteering work three days a week, do my daughter garden and anything else that comes to hand but never been into formal exercise

I am a firm believer that repetitive abnormal movements are actually very bad for people. This includes stuff like aerobics and work-outs.

Walking and swimming are the thing - although I rarely swim now, as it is such a * palaver. However, I am out in my garden this weather - nothing strenuous; just pottering around pruning, weeding etc. And the GC keep me as active as I can be.

Dear GS (aged 3) said to me yesterday: "Please come and sit by me Mama (on a very low sofa) and play spaceships. I will help you up"!!! - bless, as they say!

I walk more in the winter - half an hour every day - as the garden does not need doing. Walking is painful for me so I cannot see the point in overdoing it. I have put on a stone since becoming less easily mobile; but that has stabilised now.

I think that moderation in all things is the way to go; definitely nothing that causes repetitive strain injuries or wear and tear on specific joints.

Manon, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I have a small Westie she is 9 and 3 small walks a day is fine. I decided many years ago that housework could be done only when necessary. I keep a small garden tidy and well swept, do school drop off and pick up, also grandchildren to activities. I knit for charity, read in bed, all of these things keep me fit enough. I'm only 77 too.

This is advice, not compulsory, your choice! The fact of the matter is, physical activity is an important factor in keeping healthy, but surely it's up to you to decide whether to take the advice or not, like all other health-related advice..

I hate to sound virtuous, but DH and I walk about 30 minutes everyday - I don't really enjoy it but it is "good for me"; T'ai Chi class weekly, but practice most days, and walk everywhere I can, try not to use the car... Try to nap every afternoon, read books, sit at pc chatting to you lot!
Don't really know what the amount is - but think it is mobility and flexibility which are necessary.

Don’t leave the house so no exercise , trying to strengthen legs and arms.

I go out walking, and in the bad weather when I can't get out I have an exercise bike and do 15 mins in the morning and about 10/15 mins in the evening ( most of the time, but if I don't feel like doing it...I don't) . I have a bit of arthritis in my knee now through an injury so that is better if I do some exercise. I don't do anything now, if I can avoid it, that I don't enjoy. Life's too short. Gave up the gym a few years ago when I stopped enjoying it. Still work part time and have the household chores (and that's what I consider it....a chore, and something I do because I like my house nice). There is a nice balance and a bit of me time reading a book or taking it easy is well earned...and enjoyable.

At my recent prediabetic classes it was suggested that everyone moves around for a minimum of 10 minutes every hour. This will help circulation and can prevent or improve any of those painful swollen ankles and legs and the awful red rashes and sores that older people might get too.
Obviously not during the night though.
It was also said that if we eat 100 calories less a day added to the 10 minutes exercise every waking hour that we could lose a stone in weight per year. No need for calorie reduction if you don't need to lose weight though.
If you can move around for longer then it's even better of course. They advised it does not need to be exercises as in star jumps or nothing but can be just pottering in the garden . Walking around the house or out in fresh air . Walking the dog . Ironing. Housework .
Hope this helps a little to clarify what they might mean .

I walk my dog for an hour twice a day. Look after the huge garden and read but do as little housework as possible it can wait . Some of my friends spend hours every day cleaning a house from top to bottom where only two live - madness! I'm 77.

Yes I do that as well lemongrove take a break to read a chapter or three of my current book.
I walk my dogs and do the housework. I have a voluntary role in a library so that's enough for me.
Like your style Willow

You are an inspiration to us all Willow

I currently work from home on the pc so get no exercise at all. Don't do sport and not much gardening. I occasionally manage to walk to the post office - my car has just had it's 1st year service and only had 800 miles on the clock which shows how little I use that! Evenings are either in front of the tv or on my personal pc. I'm being made redundant at the end of the year and my one ambition is to start getting more exercise - only of course it will be winter by then so won't be going far!

I've started a daily fifteen minute workout for seniors, with a nice young man on YouTube. I rarely use the car, preferring to walk wherever possible. DH does all the gardening here, I'd be useless. My activity level will be upped tomorrow though, we are going to Hampton Court flower show preview evening. Lots of walking g for the next three days!

The only thing I do any differently (now am older) is to break up jobs into portions, I used to whizz round and simply do all that needed doing, now I do chores and gardening for less time, then my back can take it.I may also sit down for a cuppa and biscuit mid chore.

What Merlot says!

I don't bother keeping track. I spend more time in the garden than doing housework but it all gets done somehow. I don't do any sport as I don't have the time or the inclination. When I sit down to watch telly or read I feel I've earned a rest.

If I need to keep going I keep going but when I stop I don't feel guilty.

I wish they'd stop preaching at us. 'They'll' be our age one day.