Exercise – Just Go Do Something

Exercise is something we all know about, so there is no need to belabor the point.  But most people don't exercise at all because they think it won't do any good unless they run a marathon each week.  The fact is that it doesn't take much exercise to make a big difference in your quality of life.  You don't have to run; you can walk.  Walking is actually better for general health purposes.  You don't have to do it for two hours.  Twenty to thirty minutes is enough.  The idea is just to elevate your heart rate for about twenty minutes.  You don't have to do it every day.  Three times a week will bring great reward.

What will it do for you? It will make your heart work just a little harder so that it stays strong.  It increases blood flow to all those spots that forgot what blood felt like.  It flushes toxins out of muscles that you haven't used in a while.  It makes the lymph move in your lymphatics, cleansing and healing them. Mostly, it increases the amount of oxygen you are breathing in and circulat­ing in your blood.  That brings about the positive oxygen metabo­lism that fights free radicals and avoids the negative nitrogen metabolism where free radicals like to grow.

Also, you don't have to do aerobic exercise to get aerobic benefits.  Anaerobic exercise should not be equated to anaerobic metabolism.  You do breathe when you lift weights (i.e., aerobic exercise). Research has shown over and over again that moderate weight training with a proper diet can strengthen the heart, slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, increase lung capacity, and cause weight loss.  A well-paced workout with weights (meaning you don't take a five-minute break between sets) two to three times a week will actually burn more calories over the course of the week than running a half hour four times a week.  The reason is simple: when you stop running, the muscles stop asking for more food, but when you do five sets of leg presses, the same muscles crave food for the next two to three days while they re­build and your metabolism increases.   One of my assistants swears he can lose five pounds in a week just by adding three sets of deadlifts to his routine on Monday.

The bottom line is not what kind of exercise you do, but that you do something.  Go play tennis.  Go walk around the mall. Go chop wood.  I like to play golf. Just go do something!  The best exercise is the one that you will do because you like to do it and know it is "a good thing."  It doesn't even have to look like exer­cise as long as there is a consistent activity level for about twenty to thirty minutes three times a week.  The difference it will make in the way you feel will astound you.

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