Exercise Made Simple & Effective, Part 2

There are two reasons for exercising regularly: one, it reminds you to do it at a certain time of the day; two, constancy of progress is assured.

Deciding when to have your daily exercise is not as important as doing it.

What kind of exercise should one have?  The answer depends on the individual.  Is it walking, running, aerobics, working out with weights, or simply playing with your children?

Walking – as many would agree – is the easiest solution to a form of regular exercise.  It can be done alone, with a companion, or in a group at anytime, and is easily fitted into anybody’s daily schedule.  If you walk to and from the office each day as part of your trip, it takes little time out of your day.

According to Rodale (who recommends an hour or two per day, if possible), walking brings many of our vital muscles into play, muscles too seldom exercised since we ride so much.  It brings us out into the fresh air and brings plenty of health-giving oxygen into the blood stream.

Another advantage of walking as an exercise is that anybody of any age can do it. If you get tired, you can just rest and go home long before physical exhaustion can set in.  There is no need to exert yourself.  When you walk and get tired, you can stop and sit down – even on a curb if you must, or in the grass under a shady tree.

In the American Medical Association Journal’s summary of the article on exercise, these points are stressed:  Start young with some form of regular exercise and continue at a good pace determined by experience; Persons over 30 should not indulge in hard, fast, sustained games unless they have been maintaining an appropriate state of fitness; Watch your ability to recuperate from an exercise session – if your heart is pounding for more than 10 minutes – and the feeling of weakness persists, you’d better slow down.

We’re pleased to see recommendations for exercise in the Journal as an indication that orthodox medicine approves as we do of this natural measure for maintaining good health.  As Rodale says, “We regard good diet as the most important way of insuring good health, but don’t sell exercise short, your body needs some every day.  Make sure you get it!”

Tidbit.  Do you know that not all living things get old?  Bacteria do not age and die naturally.  They divide and multiply indefinitely barring accidents and predators, reports Curtis Fuller in his Column, “I See By The Papers” in Fate Magazine.