How To Make Exercise Easy

Author: Donovan Baldwin

Article:
I just want to make a couple of points about this idea of making
exercise easy before I get into the rest of the article.

1. A level of exercise that is relatively easy, yet effective,
at one stage of your personal fitness or weight loss program may
be worthless at another stage.

2. Exercise is one of those things where you get back what you
put in, in terms of health, fitness, weight loss, energy, or
combinations of those.

In other words, what is "easy" exercise for you might not be
what is easy for your neighbor, or vice versa. Also, what is
"easy" exercise for you when you begin it may provide you
rewards in terms of health, fitness, weight loss, or energy at
first. However, if you stay with that easy exercise, eventually
your body will make changes within itself, and it will be
necessary to adjust upwards.

Another aspect of easy exercise, however, is the idea of
activity that you will stay with. This implies finding something
interesting to do. Still, a drawback here is that although you
may be really interested in some activity, you might not
presently be fit enough to pursue it. Also, there is the fact
that if you are not fit at this time, there are a lot of
activities that might not appeal to you at all. However, were
you to become fit through exercise and proper nutrition, you may
find yourself interested in some of those activities.

So, the idea is to find something that is simple to do, that you
can fit into your schedule, and that you can stay with. It
possibly might not be appealing to you at the moment, but it
needs to be something that you can decide to do and keep at with
the idea that when you do progress to another level of fitness,
you can add to or change that exercise completely.

For many people, one of the best exercises to get started with
is walking...although not the only one.

Walking is something you do every day, something you know how to
do, and something, that at the beginning, at least, requires no
real preparation or equipment. Of course, at any level, a good
pair of shoes is recommended.

Walking can be considered an easy exercise because to get
started, all you have to do is increase the amount that you
already do each day. In fact, at a beginning level, it is not
necessary to do all your "exercise program" walking at once. If
you need to deliver papers to someone at the other end of the
block, why not walk around the block? If you have two parking
places to choose from and one (which yesterday you would have
dived for) is near the door, why not pick the one farther away?
Walking for weight loss or exercise also gives you the option of
simply getting up from what you are doing (or not doing) at any
time of day and taking a walking break instead of a coffee break
or grazing through the leftovers in the fridge.

By the way, I do not recommend skipping lunch in order to walk.
I DO recommend taking a walk on your lunch break, but leave
yourself time to comfortably enjoy your meal. It is the
accumulated activity of each day, rather than a lot of activity
on one day, that produces the most overall health
benefits...particularly for the beginning exerciser.

In time, if you want to escalate your program, you can find some
hills to walk up and down, you can climb stairs at work instead
of taking the elevator. More than one out-of-shape individual
went from walking to the mailbox to running marathons. However,
and particularly at first, be careful not to task yourself too
much. Any one who has not been exercising needs to ease into it
and not try to go too fast. If you are doing more than you did
last week and are eager to keep adding, you are at a good level.

One point to remember is that thing about getting back what you
put in. When you begin walking, or gardening, bike riding,
swimming...whatever, you will be at a level that will not cause
huge weight loss or make you into an Olympic athlete. However,
if you are doing more than you were and are doing it regularly,
four or five times a week, your body will be making adjustments
to your level of health and fitness even if you cannot see them
yet. Keep at it and keep moving forward and the adjustments will
become visible and you will be shopping for new clothes, and
maybe some new sporting equipment as well. That's okay, because
you will possibly be saving on medication and doctor's visits.

Another important point is that no one activity or exercise is
the "perfect" exercise. Walking, while a great overall
conditioner and contributor to general health, and
cardiovascular health in particular, does little for upper body
strength or flexibility. Weight training and other forms of
resistance training, as most people do it, can do wonders for
upper and lower body strength, but might not contribute much to
cardiovascular health by itself. A good set of stretching
combined with common calisthenics might contribute to
flexibility with some strength benefits, but the cardiovascular
benefits might be lacking.

Almost any of the activities mentioned above can be combined or
alternated in ways to produce all the desired and anticipated
benefits. In fact, having a large number of exercise options
open to you not only creates opportunities to affect all aspects
of fitness, but makes exercise easier in that you have a
selection to choose from and can vary your healthful activity
based on the day's schedule or circumstances and your particular
needs and wants at the moment.

This, by the way, is where I always make a plug for yoga as
being a great "take with you anywhere, and do any time" exercise
program.

As you can see, while there may be no such thing as easy
exercise, there is almost always a way to easily make exercise a
part of your life...a life that may be longer and more rewarding
because you did.

About the author:
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer and University of West Florida
alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S.
Army after 21 years of service. Learn more about health, fitness,
and weight loss at http://fitness-weight-loss.web-home.ws/