There's air conditioning, hair conditioning, and lately, err-conditioning. A new study in the journal Obesity found that in the past year, people have become even more sedentary than in pre-pandemic years, when 60% of Americans were inactive.

Both intensity of and time spent doing exercise has decreased, and almost 28% of the study's participants confessed to gaining weight.

As a remedy, a recent commentary in The Lancet suggests that 2021 should become the year of reconditioning. It says, "many of the changes previously blamed on disease or aging are in fact due to inactivity and a loss of fitness."

And clearly, this past year has prematurely aged people in all demographics.

Here's your five-step reconditioning plan:

1. Set a monthly walking goal. For example, walk 3,000 steps daily in month one; add 1,000 daily steps each month until you get to 10,000 a day in month 10. That gives you time to build up endurance (and you can always exceed your goals).

2. Increase your exercise intensity with interval training.

3. Adopt a strength-building routine two to three days weekly.

4. Stretch 20 minutes daily. Go to health.clevelandclinic.org and search for "stretching."

5. Keep workouts varied and flexible so you avoid injury and don't get bored.