Swimming is (a) good exercise.

0 It strains the limits, Teo, at least in my opinion!02br
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00 I think of "an exercise" as some particular movement designed to be repeated so as to strengthen a muscle or particular group of muscles. 02br
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01i00A good exercise is to do bicep curls.02br
00 The bench press is a good exercise.02i02br
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0Google results02br
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00Swimming is01font01b00 02b02font00good exercise. 87502br
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00Swimming is01font01b00 a02b02font00 good exercise. 4690-

0Otherwise I would say 'swimming is a good form of exercise'02br
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050010id1

0Teo, As a stand alone sentence, you need 'swimming is good excercise.'02br
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00If you look at your googled examples you will see that 'swimming is a good excercise' forms only part of a sentence and can be correct in those contexts. 02br
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00I was wondering whether 01b00swimming is a good exercise02b00 for building muscle 02

Hi,

I followed a link provided by Teo/Sitifan to this thread. In the other post (from a forum for English teachers in Taiwan), someone asked the following question:

Mopping the floor is _____ .
a) a good exercise
b) good exercise

Answer: b) good exercise

--------
If I understand CalifJim's explanation, which is very good by the way, correctly

Exercise can be a count or noncount noun, depending on the context.
I swim for exercise. Jogging is good exercise. (noncount noun; no article)
A gymnast must be skilled in four different exercises to qualify for competition (count noun).

AlpheccaStars Exercise can be a count or noncount noun, depending on the context.

I take it you were trying to say the test question I presented was invalid? (because there's no context).
Or both a) and b) are possible? (depends on the context).

Thanks,

-- DJ

Without some sort of additional context, I doubt that "mopping the floor" would ever be looked at countably as being an exercise.

YankeeWithout some sort of additional context, I doubt that "mopping the floor" would ever be looked at countably as being an exercise.

So it is correct to say "Mopping the floor is good exercise" as a stand-alone sentence?
(without a/an)


Thanks

Yes, in that sort of stand-alone sentence, I would expect people to view "mopping the floor" as exercise only in very general terms (without a/an).