Dear Savvy Senior: I will be retiring in a few months and one of my retirement resolutions is to start exercising. My question is how much exercise is enough to be healthy and live longer?

-- Hate to Sweat

Dear Sweat: There's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to exercise. How much is enough depends on your age, health status and fitness goals -- but if your primary interest is healthy aging, it may be easier than you think.

Here's what you should know:

No sweat exercise

According to numerous recent studies, you don't have to break a sweat to reap the health benefits of exercise. While national health guidelines still recommend around 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day, it now appears to take much less effort than that to make a dramatic improvement in your health and longevity.

The biggest health benefits can come from just a small increase in activity like house cleaning, gardening or taking a short walk -- all of which can help prevent heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, dementia, osteoporosis and even cancer.

Here are some recent medical studies that show how a little activity can go a long way:

Walking -- One hour of walking a week lowered risks of coronary artery disease 51 percent.

Stair climbing -- Walking 55 flights of stairs a week lowered death rates by 33 percent.

Gardening -- One hour of gardening a week lowered the risk of sudden cardiac death by 66 percent.

Cleaning -- Regular household cleaning lowered heart attack risk by 54 percent in men and by 84 percent in women.

Exercise -- Older adults who exercised only once a week were 40 percent less likely to die during a 12-year study period than those who did nothing.