Use it or lose it.
“I don’t have time.”
“It’s no fun.”
“I’m too tired.”
“I don’t like to sweat.”
“I look ugly in shorts.”
“I don’t like the discomfort.”
“The weather’s bad.”
“It’s too much like work.”
“It’s boring.”
You’ve heard them. I’ve used them. They’re excuses — for people who don’t want to exercise. You may be familiar with a few.
Even the best intentions to travel the path of wellness won’t get us very far without the Law of Physical Activity. Think of it as Wellness 101.
The critical importance of exercise has been recognized for centuries. Modern studies confirming its positive influence are legion. The message is repeated in newspapers and magazines and on television. From grade schools to nursing homes, throughout our lives, the message is clear: we need to exercise! There’s little room to debate the powerful Law of Physical Activity.
The list of benefits of exercise is long. Regular physical activity will
The Law of Physical Activity is powerful!
If the pharmaceutical industry could bottle and sell a compound that would do all these things, the product would be hailed as the greatest wonder drug of the century. It would also, no doubt, be expensive.
The Law of Physical Activity carries an important condition: the activity must be regular. The benefits of exercise can’t be stored.
For years medical schools have recommended exercise three times per week. But this advice completely misses the boat. If you don’t make exercise part of your daily life, chances are you won’t exercise at all.
Regular daily exercise will keep your fitness level up to par. I recommend at least twenty minutes a day, each and every day.
Twenty minutes is one-seventy-second of your day. Who doesn’t have twenty minutes a day? The Law of Physical Activity becomes real only by making it part of daily life.
But the Law of Physical Activity is not an easy law. Simple, yes. Easy, no.
Exercise, just like eating, means changing personal habits that over time may have become very comfortable. “That’s just the way I am” is no longer a valid excuse. “I can exercise and I will exercise” is the mind-set that will serve us best.
I know. After my lung cancer diagnosis, I began to interview survivors, hoping to learn their secrets. Exercise kept coming up as a key ingredient of recovery. So I bought myself an exercise bike, a set of weights, a treadmill, and an assortment of ropes, rubber bands, and “spring things.” I thought I’d put myself on the wellness track.
But the gap between “purchaser” and “user” is wide. After an initial burst of enthusiasm, my fancy equipment started to gather dust. Boxes were stacked on the treadmill. Lawn and garden tools leaned up against the exercise bike. Cobwebs actually sprouted around the barbell.
One Saturday, I finally hauled all the equipment over to a neighbor’s garage sale and sold it for tens cents on the dollar. Defeated and ashamed, I knew it was the only honest thing to do.
The story doesn’t stop there. The weights and exercise bike were purchased by another neighbor. This past spring he had his own garage sale. You guessed it: my prized exercise equipment changed owners again.
Despite my own and my neighbor’s heroic intentions, our go-for-the-gold, world-beater attitude did not result in transforming the Law of Physical Activity into a reality for us.
So what do we do? And how can we get started implementing the Law of Physical Activity? As the Nike ad states, “Just do it!” There’s more wisdom in those words than we may realize.
To get myself to exercise daily, I had to come to an understanding that moderate, less intense, less extreme activity was not only just fine; it was preferable. It would work. Forget the weights and treadmill. My new starting point was “On your mark! Get set! Walk!”
Walking was the answer. I didn’t need any expensive equipment. No more complicated formulas for maximum oxygen uptake or calorie bum. I didn’t even have to understand the differences between anaerobic and aerobic metabolism.
Walking! Simple. Easy. And I could do it anywhere.
All I had to do was put one foot in front of the other. I’d start slowly for the first five minutes, increase my speed for the next twenty minutes but never so fast that I was out of breath, and end slowly the last five minutes. Presto! There was my new program.
No new athletic skills were required. No court-time fees. No expensive equipment. The basic requirement was a good pair of walking shoes and my commitment to “just do it.” This made sense.
I’ve been walking for more than eight years. I can say with integrity that I practice this program thirty days out of thirty-one, whether at home or on the road. Today I also do some full-body stretches to start the routine, and I close my daily session with a few minutes of calisthenics. In forty-five minutes each morning, I’m set for living! Simple. It’s my way of life.
It’s been my observation that most people know how to walk. I would encourage those who have mastered this skill to use it each and every day. And for those who can’t walk, the benefits of upper-body exercise are equally great.
The Law of Physical Activity is not negotiable. Face it. It’s time to just do it.
People who “woke up” their life through exercise are multitudinous. Carolyn Hess, age seventy-something, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, became increasingly incapacitated by arthritis. Warm-water hydrotherapy exercise changed her life. “Now I can walk, cook, and even shoot a game of pool with my great-grandson. It’s the exercise that made the difference.”
Don Pritchard moved his family from South Dakota to Arizona in search of an allergy-free climate. “We just changed allergies,” said Don. “There’s more dust on the desert than pollen up north. The real difference is that now I exercise. I ride my bicycle. And guess what? My allergies hardly ever bother me.”
Gladys Britton of Westport, Connecticut, age 102, credits an active lifestyle and a broad range of interests for her many years. “I get down on the floor every day and do stretching exercises. And I walk around our building twice each day when the weather permits.”
Clive Inlander was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age seventy-seven. “I opted for good medical care, all right. But I also got busy with my self-care. I started to walk. As I walked my body, I talked to my body, making suggestions to get well. Walking and talking. That’s why I’m in great health today.”
It’s the Law of Physical Activity at work. Its power is amazing. I know you know that exercise is necessary to achieve wellness. There’s no debate. So what’s standing in our way?
Perceived pain! For some, physical pain. For others, emotional.
Of the thousands of people with whom I have worked over the last decade, I can recall only two who said they truly enjoyed their exercise program right from the start. But once people found the right routine and kept at it for a period of weeks, exercise became more than a requirement. It became a pleasure, something they looked forward to every day. It was a joy!
That’s it! The Law of Physical Activity linked with the Law of Esprit.
The costs of violating the Law of Physical Activity are too great. You and I simply can’t afford to neglect it. It’s not hard to develop a “Yes, I can” attitude. Slow and steady is the key. Seek moderate and regular lifelong exercise that is fun, and chances are you’ll stick to it.
It’s all part of living out the non-negotiable Law of Physical Activity.