Muscle-strengthening activities
In addition to the above aerobic activities, adults should also aim to do a minimum of two sessions of muscle-strengthening activities per week, although these should not be on consecutive days.
Muscle-strengthening activities can include climbing stairs, walking uphill, lifting or carrying shopping, digging the garden, weight training, Pilates, yoga or similar resistance exercises that use the major muscle groups. Ideally, the activities and exercises should not only aim to improve or maintain your muscle strength, but also aim to maintain or improve your flexibility and balance. A session at a gym is possibly ideal, but activities at home may be equally as good. For example, stair climbing, stretching and resistance exercises can be done at home without any special clothing or equipment.
A session should be a minimum of 8-10 exercises using the major muscle groups. Ideally, to help build up your muscle strength, use some sort of resistance (such as a weight for arm exercises) and do 8-12 repetitions of each exercise. The level (weight) of each exercise should be so that you can do 8-12 repetitions before the muscle group gets tired. So, for example, for the upper arm muscles, hold a weight in your hand and flex (bend) your arm up and down 8-12 times. This should make your arm muscles tire.
You can do the exercises one after another to complete a session. Or, you can split a session up over a day in, say, bouts of 10 minutes.