63. Beware Exercise Equipment, Fire Your Personal Trainer, and Go Take a Walk

There’s a wonderful scene in the movie Alice where a fashionable yuppie has to reschedule her appointment with her personal trainer, who can’t come for his appointment until after her session with her Rolfer, which has to be rescheduled so she can meet with her chiropractor. After that, she can go to the club for her massage and shiatsu lessons, which she plans to do following her Nautilus routine, but before the Swede walks on her back.

This is only a slight exaggeration of the rigorous physical exercise regimen many of us have set up for ourselves. Does all this go-go exercise do us any good? It might if we stuck with it, but the road to flab is paved with good intentions. The average number of times a new exercycle is used is 7.2, then it either sits in the corner of the room, cluttering up your life and making you feel guilty, or it goes into the next garage sale. Every day this expensive equipment—or the health club membership—goes unused, the guilt level rises, which only increases the stress in our lives.

We’ve become so addicted to compulsive, competitive behavior that we’ve even extended it to exercise, which, theoretically, we do for relaxation, and to improve and maintain our health. Now is the perfect time to get off the high-tech equipment sports treadmill and go take a walk.

Walking requires no fancy equipment, no new clothes, no club membership, and it’s the best exercise you can get. Studies at the National Institute of Health and the Department of Physical Education of the U.S. Marines have shown beyond question that a thirty-minute walk every day, or even only three times a week, provides all the aerobic exercise anyone needs to maintain good health. Not only does a good, brisk walk energize the heart and lungs and respiratory system, but it clears the head and soothes the soul. It provides an excellent opportunity to get in touch with nature every day, to listen to the birds, to savor the seasons, to give a friendly nod to neighbors, to walk your dog, or to have a quiet few moments on your own just to treasure and enjoy.

Try it for one month. Get up half an hour earlier and go for a walk, in good weather or bad. If you don’t like to walk alone, set up a buddy system with your mate or a good friend. Or have your kids join you on your daily walks. This is a good way to teach your children the importance of regular exercise. Once you’ve done it for a month, commit to it for six months. After you’ve walked regularly for six months, the chances are good you’ll stick with it for life.

There are few things you can do that will be better for your soul, and nothing you can do that will be easier, less stressful, and more beneficial for your body.