Why Exercise Needs to Be a Priority

We often hear that exercise is good for us, but in today's busy world it is also one of the first things many of us push aside when life gets hectic. Between work, family responsibilities, household tasks, and the endless demands of daily life, finding time to exercise can feel difficult.

The irony is that exercise is not simply something we should do when we have spare time - it is one of the foundations of good health! Regular movement supports our heart, muscles, bones, brain, hormones, metabolism, mental wellbeing, and long-term independence. It helps us feel better today while also protecting our health for the future.

As a Nutritional Therapist, I spend a lot of time talking to clients about nutrition, but I often remind them that food is only one piece of the health puzzle. Exercise is equally important. In fact, if I could go back in time and give my younger self one piece of health advice, it would be to make exercise a priority much sooner.

My Personal Journey with Exercise

So if I’m completely honest, exercise is something I dipped in and out of throughout my twenties and thirties. I was never completely inactive - I always did something here and there - but I was never truly consistent. I would go through phases where I exercised regularly for a while, then life would get busy, routines would change, and exercise would slowly slip away again. Sometimes I would just stick to walking, sometimes I would focus on Pilates or yoga for a few months and then stop. I always did something, but I never really made it a true non-negotiable.

Looking back, that is one of my regrets.

If I could go back in time, one thing I would change is that I would have made exercise much more of a priority much earlier - especially from around the age of 35 onwards. I would have treated it not as something optional or something to fit in when life allowed, but as something essential for my long-term health.

At the age of 43, when my son was no longer a tiny baby, I suddenly found myself with a little more time and a little more space to think about my own health again. That was the point where I realised that I really needed to start taking exercise more seriously.

So I did. I started exercising consistently three times a week, and that consistency changed everything.  As the years went by, I discovered running, and I also began to understand the importance of strength training in a much more serious way. I started lifting heavier weights, challenging myself more, and realising how empowering it feels to become physically stronger.

Even something as simple as picking up heavy shopping bags now feels different. I feel strong. I feel capable. I feel physically able in a way I didn’t before, and that is one of the most rewarding feelings.

In my thirties, I could never have imagined myself running a half-marathon . Now I have run three. These days I train around five times a week. One session is more mobility-focused with deep stretches and movement work, others involve bodyweight training, cardio-based intervals such as HIIT or Tabata, and one session is dedicated to pure strength where I focus on lifting heavier weights. If I can fit in an extra short session of weights and stretching during the week, I do.

Has exercise magically made everything easy? No.

Weight management certainly becomes more challenging as we get older, especially for women. But exercise has helped me maintain my weight, feel stronger, improve my energy, support my mental health, and has given me a sense of resilience and confidence that I did not have before.

And perhaps that is the biggest lesson I have learned. Exercise is not just about appearance.

It changes how you feel, how you move, how you cope, how you age, and ultimately how you live.

Exercise Is Not Just About Weight Loss

For many years, exercise was marketed as something people did to lose weight or “burn calories”.

But exercise is so much more than that. Movement affects nearly every system in the body.

It supports the heart, muscles, bones, hormones, brain, metabolism, digestion, mood, immunity, mobility, and healthy ageing.

The human body was designed to move. In fact, movement is not simply something nice to do when we have time - it is a biological need. Regular exercise can improve how we feel today while also protecting our health for decades to come.

Strength Training - One of the Most Important Forms of Exercise as We Age

If there is one type of exercise that becomes increasingly important as we get older, it is strength training. Many people still think of strength training as something only for athletes, bodybuilders, or younger people wanting to build muscle for aesthetic reasons. In reality, strength training is one of the most protective things we can do for long-term health.

As we age, we naturally begin to lose muscle mass unless we actively work to maintain it. This gradual loss of muscle can affect everything from strength and metabolism to posture, balance, mobility, and independence. Strength training helps preserve and build muscle, but it also does much more than that. Strong muscles support the joints, improve balance, reduce injury risk, improve posture, and help us stay physically capable in everyday life.

For women, strength training becomes especially important during and after menopause.

Oestrogen has a protective effect on bone health, and as oestrogen declines during menopause, bone loss can accelerate. This can increase the risk of osteopenia, osteoporosis, fractures, weakness, and frailty later in life. Resistance training places healthy stress on bones, signalling them to stay stronger. At the same time, stronger muscles help protect the skeleton and support the body more effectively.

This is one reason why strength training is so important in helping reduce the risk of falls and fractures as we age. Hip fractures in older adults, for example, are not simply “broken bones”. They can lead to prolonged immobility, muscle wasting, surgery, rehabilitation, loss of independence, and a serious decline in overall health.

Strength training helps build the kind of body that is more resilient, more stable, and better protected against this. And no, this does not mean you need to become a bodybuilder.

Strength training can include resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, Pilates-based resistance, kettlebells, machines, or lifting weights. What matters is challenging the muscles in a consistent and progressive way.

Walking - One of the Most Underrated Forms of Exercise

Not everybody likes running. Not everybody can run.

Some people have injuries, knee pain, joint issues, back pain, or simply do not enjoy high-impact exercise. And that is absolutely fine.

Brisk walking is one of the most underrated forms of exercise. Walking may look simple, but it offers an impressive range of benefits. It supports heart health, improves circulation, helps regulate blood sugar, supports fat metabolism, improves mood, reduces stress, supports lymphatic flow, and helps build cardiovascular fitness. And the key here is not simply wandering around slowly.

A purposeful walk where you stand tall, engage your core, swing your arms, walk briskly, and move with intention becomes much more than “just walking”. It becomes a whole-body activity that raises heart rate, improves stamina, supports metabolism, and strengthens cardiovascular health.

Walking is also accessible, gentle on the joints for many people, free, and one of the easiest forms of exercise to maintain long-term. For many people, brisk walking may be one of the best forms of cardio they can do.

Cardiovascular Exercise - Training Your Heart and Stamina

Cardiovascular exercise plays a different role to strength training, but it is equally important.

Cardio helps strengthen the heart and lungs, improves circulation, increases stamina, supports blood pressure regulation, improves oxygen delivery throughout the body, and plays an important role in metabolic health.

This can include brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, rowing, dance-based fitness, HIIT, circuit training, or any activity that gets the heart rate up. You do not need to run marathons to benefit from cardio. But regularly challenging the heart and lungs is important for long-term health.

Cardio also tends to have powerful effects on mental wellbeing, helping reduce stress and improve mood through the release of endorphins and other beneficial brain chemicals.

Mobility Work - The Exercise Many People Forget

Strength matters. Cardio matters. But mobility matters too.

As people get older, they often do not just become weaker - they become stiffer. Joints may lose range of motion, muscles may tighten, posture can change, and everyday movement can start to feel less fluid. Mobility work helps keep the body moving well.

Practices such as yoga, Pilates, stretching, mobility drills, and deep range-of-motion exercises can help improve flexibility, reduce stiffness, support posture, improve coordination, and reduce injury risk. Mobility is not about being able to touch your toes or perform advanced yoga poses.

It is about maintaining comfortable, functional movement in everyday life and keeping the body supple as we age. A body that moves well is a body that functions better.

Exercise and Pain Management

One of the most common things I hear from clients is: “I’m in pain, so I can’t exercise.”

And while there are certainly situations where specific movement needs to be modified, in many cases, gentle and appropriate exercise is exactly what the body needs.

Pain often creates a vicious cycle. A person moves less because something hurts. Then muscles weaken, joints stiffen, circulation becomes poorer, posture worsens, and pain can actually increase.

Regular movement can help break that cycle. Exercise can improve circulation to tissues, strengthen muscles around painful joints, improve posture, reduce stiffness, improve joint lubrication, and release natural pain-relieving chemicals called endorphins. This is why movement is often recommended as part of the management of conditions such as back pain, arthritis, muscular pain, fibromyalgia, tension-related pain, and general stiffness.

Pain does not always mean stop moving. Sometimes, the right kind of movement is part of the treatment. Of course, exercise should always be appropriate to the person and their condition, but avoiding movement altogether is often not the answer.

Exercise and Weight Management

Exercise is not the only factor when it comes to weight management - nutrition plays a major role - but movement is still incredibly important. Exercise helps improve insulin sensitivity, supports blood sugar balance, helps preserve lean muscle, supports fat metabolism, increases energy expenditure, and influences hormones involved in appetite regulation.

As we age, maintaining weight often becomes more difficult, particularly for women during hormonal changes such as perimenopause and menopause. Exercise may not always lead to dramatic weight loss, but it often helps prevent weight gain, supports metabolic health, improves body composition, and helps the body function more efficiently.

For many people, exercise becomes less about chasing a number on the scale and more about maintaining strength, function, energy, and metabolic resilience.

Exercise Supports Mental Health

This is one of the biggest things I have noticed personally. Exercise does not just change the body - it changes the mind.

Movement encourages the release of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and other brain chemicals that help support mood, motivation, emotional resilience, and stress management. Many people notice that after exercise, they feel mentally lighter, calmer, clearer, and more energised. Exercise can also help reduce stress, improve emotional regulation, improve sleep, and provide a healthy outlet for mental tension. In many ways, movement can be one of the most powerful forms of therapy for the mind.

Exercise Supports Better Sleep

People who move regularly often sleep better. Exercise helps support circadian rhythms, improve sleep quality, reduce stress hormones, improve energy regulation, and support deeper restorative sleep. And better sleep then supports everything else - hormones, immunity, mood, metabolism, brain health, and recovery. Good sleep and exercise work beautifully together.

Exercise Supports Healthy Ageing

Exercise is one of the strongest predictors of healthy ageing. It helps preserve strength, mobility, balance, brain health, cardiovascular health, bone density, confidence, independence, and overall quality of life. It helps us stay capable. It helps us stay resilient. It helps us maintain function and confidence as the years go by. Ageing is inevitable. But how we age is something we can influence.

Final Thoughts

Exercise is so much more than something we do to lose weight or change how we look. It is one of the most powerful things we can do to support our health, both now and in the future. It helps us build strength, protect our bones, support our heart, improve our mood, manage stress, maintain mobility, and age with greater resilience and independence. For me personally, exercise has taught me that it is not about perfection, nor is it about becoming the fittest person in the room - it is about consistency, showing up for yourself, and building a body and mind that can carry you through life well. If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would simply be this: start sooner, stay consistent, and keep moving. Because exercise is not just about adding years to your life - it is about adding life to your years.