Like most of us, you probably know you need to keep fit – but just why is it so vital? And what sort of exercise should you be doing – how often, how hard and for how long? Perhaps you feel you are fit already – but how much exercise are you really taking? What are the consequences of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles?

This book explains exactly how exercise affects our bodies and its crucial role in preventing and treating many of the conditions that beset us as we advance in age – obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and more. At a time when the previously steady increase in life expectancy across the nation has stalled and the period of poor health and dependency at the end of life has lengthened, it is a wake-up call for every one of us, young or old, to understand the importance of an active lifestyle.

The Covid pandemic has thrown a stark light on the vulnerability of those who take too little exercise. Most of those who have become very unwell or died have been overweight, unfit and/or suffering one or more degenerative diseases of old age – all the long-term results of being inactive. Never has it been more important to make regular exercise an essential part of our daily lives. In doing so, we can not only help prevent the onset of disease and frailty, but also increase longevity and allow ourselves to look forward to a healthy and enjoyable old age.

So make a resolution: get off the couch – and do it now, before it’s too late.