Exercise

Exercise is important, everyone knows that. But it's a generally vague suggestion. What qualifies as true, body maintaining exercise? Let's nail down a few things that NEED to happen

regarding exercise.

What is the bare minimum?? Well, that depends on where you are currently at and where

you want to go. My recommendation for BASIC exercise is seemingly low as I type this,

but 30 minutes 3x/week. This is moderate to HIGH intensity exercise. This literally isn’t

a walk in the park. It means, get in, sweat, get out.

It also depends on what you do for a job. Are you at your desk all 8 hours of the day and not very active at home? Well, those 3x/week should probably be increased to 5 or 6 depending on goals and the current state of your health.

All right, I've established that I need to workout 3x/week for 30 minutes MINIMUM. But I seriously do not like working out at all. In fact, I HATE it. Fine. I get it, but let me ask you a question-what do you hate more? 90 minutes of exercise -or- looking in the mirror everyday and not liking what you see. I'm thinking the latter of the two. My initial advice is to say, SUCK IT UP! Get your butt to the gym and start seeing results. The other side of me says, find something you like.

Do you enjoy kickboxing, group exercise classes, weight training, anything?

Any mixture of those things will increase your general state of health. Isn’t that what it's all about anyway? The great thing is that even if your motivation is purely aesthetic, it's still motivation to make positive change, which in turn causes you to be physically healthy. You feel better about yourself when you are leaner, more muscular, clothes fit, etc. Simply FEELING better is an improvement in health in my opinion.

We know exercise is good for your heart, bones, mind, body, and soul, right? So why

isn’t everyone doing it? One word. LIFE. Life happens and people get busy with jobs, kids,

excuses, excuses, excuses…..

But let's really look into that for a minute:

If your job is that important to you, why don’t you improve your health? You could be

5%-25% better and more efficient at your job if you didn’t hit that 2 pm brick wall. Your health could be the one obstacle away from a raise. Is your lack of physical activity costing you money?

You family is important to you, so why don’t you exercise to give them more of your

time and energy. Better yet, why don’t you exercise with them and make a generational health change. Show your family exercise and health are important. Make it a habit for you and for

them. If that’s just what you do at 7 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it won't even be a

question. It will be expected. If the exercise tradition spans generations, you alone are responsible for that change. How remarkable!

Start exercising. Your health depends on it!

Joseph Champa, RD, CSCS