Physical activity is any kind of movement your body does. Any type of movement is physical activity. Everyone does some amount of physical activity as part of living their life. Physical activity can be anything from walking to the mailbox to running a marathon.

Exercise is a special kind of physical activity. Exercise involves a structured activity where you do the same kinds of movements repeatedly. The goal of exercise is to improve your health or physical fitness. All exercise is physical activity, but not all physical activity is exercise. Some examples of exercise are jogging, lifting weights, swimming, or playing sports like basketball or baseball.

But you don’t have to exercise to get moving! Experts recommend you get 1 hour and 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every week. That can look like doing exercise or it can be things like raking the leaves, vacuuming, or carrying groceries up the stairs.

Even if you can’t do that much physical activity, every bit of movement helps keep your body feeling good. Any physical activity is better than none.

 

Physical activity is movement of any sort, while exercise is structured and repeated, like sports.