In my last article I looked at the components of fitness and the areas we should exercise in order to gain all round fitness. A good level of fitness helps protect us against heart disease, diabetes and obesity, besides improving our mood and helping to combat depression.

What do the leading authorities in sports medicine have to say about how to improve our cardiovascular or aerobic fitness?

The American College of Sports Science states that “a programme of CV, resistance work, neuromotor training and flexibility training beyond the activities of daily living is essential for most adults”. Put some effort in, in other words!

Don’t groan though… there must be something you like doing that will improve your fitness. If you don’t fancy going to a gym then take a walk, go cycling, swimming, skateboarding even, hill walking, dancing, martial arts, tennis, hockey or netball might be fun. Importantly, find something you enjoy even if it’s just a half-hour trot to the shops.

The next question: how often and how hard should you exercise? The NHS recommends 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise to stay healthy, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or a mix of both.

Moderate activity is when you’re a bit puffed out such as when you have a briskish walk or bike ride but you can keep up a bit of conversation, and keep it going for 30 minutes.

The activity, not the conversation I mean. So that’s not a stroll and a chat, you have to make some effort! Vigorous activity is when you get a bit more puffed. You can still talk, but just in short sentences. You’re aiming to keep that up for 20 minutes.

Use a Perceived Rate Of Exertion scale to give yourself an idea of how you are doing, where level 1 is doing nothing and level 12 is so hard you’ll collapse.

Aim to exercise at around level 6-8 to improve your cardiovascular fitness. Now and again push the effort up a bit for 30 seconds: walk faster, sprint; pedal harder, swim fast. But keep breathing!

If you’re new to exercise give yourself time to build up to those goals. A brisk 30-minute walk five days per week will do the job. As you get fitter add in a 20-minute jog on one or two days, or an activity you really enjoy; dancing for me, fast swimming for my friend. It’s not rocket science, just do it!

The hardest part of doing exercise can be actually getting yourself started and if activity is not part of your vocabulary it can be a big ask. Make sure you get your kids and grandkids involved in some fitness activities. Once they have the habit, it’s easy to carry it into adult life.

Next time I’ll be talking about how to improve the muscular strength component of our fitness, which benefits our posture and improves our ability to do everyday tasks. Makes you look good too!

Patricia Issitt is a movement therapist and Pilates instructor based in York. Find out more at yorkpilates.com