If you are sedentary (you don’t exercise at all) or you have taken a break from being physically active on a regular basis, the best way to get back into a routine is to start small and to make incremental changes to your daily routine. Begin by incorporating a few minutes of physical activity into each day. Does this mean that you need to drag yourself to a gym in the freezing cold just to walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes? Of course not! The key is to get physical activity, not necessarily exercise. And yes, there is a difference between the two.
 
Although people often use the terms interchangeably, exercise is technically a subset of physical activity. Physical activity refers to any activity that involves movement—dancing, walking, or gardening, for example. Exercise is a planned and structured version of physical activity for the purpose of improving fitness. For example, you run to improve your cardiovascular fitness and you do resistance training to improve your strength and power.