Coming up with fun ways to exercise at home with the kids was particularly important in the current climate, University of Newcastle health researcher Myles Young says.
"It's really important for kids pent up at home to do some physical activity," Dr Young said.
Dr Young has been keeping active with his sons, Amos, 3, and Owen, 1. They've been using the trampoline, doing rough and tumble play like wrestling and coming up with games that involve movement.
"It's important to acknowledge that people will have different stuff going on in their lives at the moment," Dr Young said.
Many people may not be thinking about exercise, as they deal with working and looking after kids at home and, in some cases, job losses.
"The thing with exercise is that it's one of the single best things you can do for your physical and mental health," he said.
"At the moment, it's really important to remember the power of exercise to help control mood and anxiety and reduce our risk of infection."
He encouraged people to do about 30 minutes of activity three days a week at a "light to moderate intensity".
"It doesn't have to be 30 minutes all in one bout.
"If you do three blocks of 10 minutes, that's going to have the same health effects as one 30-minute bout. As little as 10 minutes a day will help and it'll be good for you."
A study of about 24,500 Chinese adults showed that mild to moderate exercise done about three times a week reduced the risk of dying during the Hong Kong flu outbreak in 1998.
People who did no exercise or too much exercise were at the greatest risk of dying, compared with people who exercised moderately.
"A moderate intensity is where you could have a conversation, but you couldn't sing," Dr Young said.
Dr Young said the research seemed to show that "you have a poorer immune function if you're not doing any exercise at all".
"Similarly, if you're overdoing it and exhausting yourself from physical activity, then that's also not ideal for your immune system.
"During a virus outbreak, a moderate approach to exercise is best."
A good approach would be to "maintain your current level of fitness, rather than trying to increase your fitness at the moment".
"If people are looking to start to do something for their health, I'd probably say do three days of exercise a week," he said.
Rest, however, is recommended for people with cold and flu symptoms.
He said physical activity would also help with anxiety.
"If stress and anxiety is persistent, it can weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to getting the virus," he said.
"You can offset that with light to moderate amounts of physical activity."
He encouraged people to do a mix of aerobic exercise like walking and running and strength training like lifting weights, push-ups, squats and lunges.
