Walking, Hiking, Cycling

Why: Starting to increase the intensity of your cardiovascular exercise is an essential part of this stage. As you work on the strength of your leg muscles, you should find that your functional capacity will also increase. In addition to walking and cycling which we touched on in the early-stage section of this series, you can now try hiking which would include more variability of terrains, and potentially more weight due to the need to carry water or other pieces of equipment. 

Time: Aim for 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise (or a combination of different intensities).