A few weeks ago my 9-year-old told me her friend said the goal of exercise was to burn 400 calories a day.

I was surprised and concerned. I'd hoped to protect her from body image concerns longer. Part of my shock was that I thought most people had left that view behind in the 90s.

I told her that when I was growing up, many people saw exercise mainly as a way to burn calories, but that view is outdated. Today we know its biggest benefits are strength, function, and longevity. Many people focus on these or on performance instead of weight control.

If your relationship with exercise feels stuck in a dark era, or you haven't engaged with exercise lately, new approaches and resources can help you have a different experience. These tips aim to help you discover a mindset that's nourishing rather than punishing.

Modern training approaches, whether aimed at healthspan or performance, typically involve a mix of exercise intensities: some days hard, some days easy.

Easy exercise is less fatiguing and quicker to recover from. It requires the self-discipline to stay at an easy effort when you're tempted to push harder.

Pushing harder makes recovery more onerous. When you discipline yourself to sometimes exercise at an easy effort, you'll exercise more frequently,........

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