These three terms are often used synonymously in the health and fitness industry. While they are similar in some ways, there are important distinctions between them.
Physical activity includes any active movement of the body. You perform physical activity when you walk to the kitchen for a glass of milk. While it is beneficial, physical activity is not always exercise (although exercise is a type of physical activity), and it certainly isn't training.
Exercise is physical activity for the purpose of health or well-being. Your average bro goes to the gym and "works chest" for exercise. Your mother walks around the block with purple 2 lb dumbbells in her hands once every 6 months for exercise. Exercise is a step up from physical activity, and certainly better than sitting on your bum, but there is no specific goal associated with it, except to get tired and sweaty.
Training is using exercise to achieve a goal. It requires regular increases in intensity, carefully directed towards each aspect of the goal. Adjustments are made constantly as the body adapts to the demands placed on it. As a result, training facilitates continued progress, where exercise alone does not. Training makes you better than you were last time, while exercise maintains the adaptations you already have.
If you want real sustained progress, stop exercising and start training toward your goals. Take small meaningful steps regularly to get closer to where you want to be. As they say, the journey of 1000 miles begins with one step!
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