Fitness Together Wilmington

You’d think that an exercise with the word ’sit’ in it, wouldn’t be so bad.  You’d also think that an exercise that allows you to lean against a wall might be easier than others.  On both accounts, you’d think wrong.  Get a load of these descriptive excerpts from wikipedia.org:

“A wall-sit is an exercise done to strengthen the quadriceps muscles.  The person wall-sitting places their back against a wall with their feet shoulder width apart and a little ways out from the wall. Then, keeping their back against the wall, they lower their hips until their knees form right angles. This is a very intense work out for the quadriceps muscles. It can be very painful to hold this position for extended periods of time.”

I’m here to tell you that in my universe an ‘extended period of time’ is about 45 seconds.  The first fifteen seconds, I can cope.  The next fifteen seconds, my thighs quiver and burn like sapling trees in an out-of-control, wind-driven brush fire.  By the time I get to the last fifteen seconds I’m shaking, moaning, groaning, and begging my trainer for mercy. 

At that very moment, ask me what I want, and I need less than a millisecond to contemplate my final answer.  I want to hear the only four words that could make a girl in my position happy:  “Here is your lifeline.” 

You see, when I make it to the end of my wall-sitting torture…(You think I exaggerate? Here’s another excerpt from wikipedia.org: “This exercise is also used as a disciplinary activity in the armed forces. It takes up little space, and can be administered easily in classroom settings to misbehaving soldiers-in-training.”  Seriously, folks, I couldn’t even make this stuff up!)

…As I was saying, when I make it to the end of my wall-sitting torture, my trainer reaches out his hand and helps me return to a standing position while announcing: “Here is your lifeline”.  I’m as grateful as if he’d just helped me to win a million dollars.

The other day, right around Second 38 of Sitting, a thought crossed my mind:  The next time the question of wall-sits comes up in a personal training session, I think I’d like to try a different lifeline.  How about phoning a friend?

It takes twenty years to become an overnight success.–Eddie Cantor

In his book, Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell describes the 10,000 Hour Rule as a reason why some people become successful. This rule is based on a study that was conducted by Anders Ericsson.  The study illustrated that those who became successful in their given field had practiced it for a total of 10,000 hours prior to being discovered.

10,000 hours to master any skill.  That’s a lot of time.  If you spent 3 hours a day, for almost every day of the year, it would take you a decade to master a skill.

One of the most humbling parts of my journey into exercise thus far has been the realization that I’ve just started traveling a long and winding road.   I’ve logged about 50 hours of exercising thus far; only 9,500 to go….

For me, it’s important to think in terms of these countless hours for two reasons:

First, it reminds me to be gentle on myself.  Athleticism is something that doesn’t come naturally to me.  I’m not immediately proficient at any exercise my trainer gives me to do.  I have to remind myself that just because I’m not good at what I’m trying, doesn’t mean that I can’t be.  Spend 10,000 hours practicing anything, you’re bound to get pretty good!  Meanwhile, I try to accept looking bad for many, many hours in order to eventually look good.

Secondly, by thinking in terms of a decade (or more) of dedicated practice, I’m able to approach exercise as a long-term strategy, a lifestyle change.  This is not The Biggest Loser.  I haven’t seen radical “instant” results in my first few weeks of training.  Unlike my past efforts, this isn’t a frantic push to lose weight for a special event, this is the steady adaptation of new behaviors that I will have to sustain for a lifetime.

Dr. Robert Moffett of Acupuncture Associates once told me that ‘fixing’ a health problem via a natural healing art like acupuncture usually takes as long as the amount of time it took for the problem to develop.  In other words, there is no ‘magic pill’.  Using that principle as a guideline, when it comes to exercise, the 10,000 hour rule makes a lot of sense.   It took years for my body to reach its current weight and current state.  It’s going to take a while for it to change again.

In Outliers, Gladwell uses the example of The Beatles, who practiced for 10,000 hours prior to becoming famous.  One of my favorite Beatles songs is When I’m Sixty-Four.    If I exercise just a little more than an hour a day for the next twenty-six years, I’ll peak at my 10,000 hours of practice at exactly that age.  Imagine that.

I’ve never understood people who complain of boredom:  kids who can’t figure out how to fill a long summer day; retirees who complain that they miss their jobs; husbands who turn to the television because there is nothing else to do. 

I’m an idea person.  There are so many ideas I want to execute and so many items on my bucket list, I could keep going forever.  I want to have glass mirror put into that antique dresser I’ve been refurbishing for the past decade.  I want to paint the shelves in our storage nook.  I want to can a huge batch of homemade antipasta.  I want to reorganize the attic.  I’ve been meaning to send care packages to a few different friends.  It’s time to write another letter to my mother-in-law in France.   I want to create a vision board (I’ve been snipping magazine clippings for months now).  And, I have a stack of unread books patiently waiting for me to spend a leisurely afternoon reading and napping in bed.  What about scouting out a new antique store or kayaking on a Sunday afternoon?

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve known boredom before.  In fact, I recently rediscovered it.  It’s spelled:  C-A-R-D-I-O.  At my trainer’s suggestion, I’ve recently stepped up my cardio routine to a minimum of thirty minutes, four times per week. 

In the past, I’ve participated in group cardio classes.  The choreography and the other people help to distract me.  Though my mind wanders and I do get bored, the peer pressure stops me from quitting.  By the time I’ve finished the 3-minute warm-up, I’m already counting the number of songs left until we reach the cool down.  But, because I feel accountable to the other people  suffering through the class, I usually manage to stick it out.

Running on a treadmill, cycling on a stationary bicycle, or climbing on a stepper sends me to Boredsville in about ten minutes.  By minute twelve, I’m completely over it.  I’m thinking of all of the other things (see above) I could be doing.  I’m wishing I had someone to talk to.   Forget grooving to Stairway to Heaven on an iPod, I’m too busy cursing the Stepper to Nowhere. 

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said: “Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”  Clearly, this man knew what it was to spend twenty minutes on an elliptical machine!  (I’d even bet he had a trainer who made him do squats on the elliptical machine too….)

Does it surprise you that I’ve never had the patience for meditation?  I’m trying to be Zen about this cardio regimen, convincing myself that it is just another form of meditation, a perfect opportunity to learn how to master mind, body and soul.   Embrace the cardio.  Be one with the machine.   Quiet the mind.  Feed the soul. 

Usually my exercise mantras sound like this:  “Only 15 more minutes.  Only 14 more minutes and 59 seconds.  Only 14 more minutes and 58 seconds…” or “Oh, I’m so bored; ugh, this is so painful.” But, in my quest for spiritual development, I’m seeking new mantras and trying to develop the ultimate play list for my iPod.  I’m also searching for  podcasts that are so interesting or entertaining, I’ll stay engaged until my cardio is done.

Angus Grossart said:  “I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom”.  With my new cardio routine, the exhaustion part is a given.  Now, if I can just keep that boredom at bay…. 

I’d love to hear how you conquer cardio boredom.  Any suggestions?

The daughter of my good friend  in California is an ice skater.  At the tender age of eleven, she is training with professional coaches have brought other ice skaters to national titles and Olympic Gold.  She hopes that she can someday join the ranks of our nation’s most elite and celebrated athletes.  Her training schedule requires dedication and consistency—she practices six days a week.  As her Mom explained, in the skating world there is an adage:

Miss one day of practice, and you notice.

Miss two days of practice, and your coach notices.

Miss three days of practice, everybody notices.

Seven weeks into my new training regime at Fitness Together, my workout routine was interrupted.   My mother, who had traveled to Buffalo, NY to visit her grandson, had a medical emergency.  She was checked into an Emergency Room, and later an Intensive Care Unit.  For the next two weeks, instead of spending my mornings complaining about the perceived pain of my voluntary workouts, I spent my mornings witnessing the real pain of an involuntary health crisis.

I suppose that if I were a dedicated fitness enthusiast with years of practice, I would have made time for exercise regardless of the 12-hour days I spent in a hospital room.  But, for me, it was all I could do to manage the situation at hand.  Figuring out how to walk, run, or do sit-ups in the midst of all of that wasn’t something I felt willing or able to make happen.

But after a few days, I noticed something.  Much to my surprise, I realized I was missing my workouts.  For the first time in my life, I actually felt that I would rather be exercising!  The feeling wasn’t strong enough to go do something about it, mind you, but it was enough to  admit that my training sessions were indeed having a positive impact on my health and well being.

There’s nothing like a week or two in a hospital to help you find a million new reasons to be fit and healthy.  As I watched people who couldn’t breathe on their own, who couldn’t move without assistance, who needed tubes and medications and bed pans and more, I gained a deeper appreciation for my current state of  health, and a strong desire to move from relative good health to optimal health.

When I finally made it back for a session with my personal trainer, it was obvious to everybody (in this case me and him since I train in a private suite) that I had been gone for a while.  But, it didn’t feel like starting over.  It felt more like coming home.

Although my interrupted workouts further delayed my already slow visible results (weight loss and muscle tone),  my absence actually did wonders for my mental  preparedness.  I have gone from clutching the boards of the rink on wobbly legs to skating out into the middle of the ice, willing to try whatever scary move my coach wants me to attempt. 

I don’t think I’ll ever win fitness gold, but at least I’m willing to consider myself a contender.

After the last post I feel like I have to give my point of view on the race and the event. First I have to CONGRATULATE all of the FT clients and friends who finished the race and pushed themselves further than what they thought they could.

I thought it would be fun get clients and friends to compete in this 5K/10K race about a month ago. Being in the fitness world I have realized that for many people when they compete in a race or event that they have never done before it is almost like an out of body experience when they finish. Crossing the finish line is not only an achievement but it is also a new milestone that people can look back on and say “I want to do another race and try to improve my personal best time”.

So I put the sign-up sheet out about 3 weeks before the race and crossed my fingers and prayed at night that people would sign up. And in the first week 10 people signed up! I was elated! I thought to myself “Ok we are going to have a party at this race”!

So myself and Kelley (another trainer) arrived at Landfall at 6:00 am and we set up the tent to help keep the clients cool post race. As the clients came to the tent we gave them their race bag and t-shirt. We took some great pictures and then got warmed up. We did an array or exercises to warm up and I heard many groans as we were doing them but in the end it is what’s best for the body. The body needs to be warm and loose before it enters battle.

Every client’s cardiovascular condition is different so I knew going into the race that everyone would be spread out throughout the 210 people competing.

Rebecca (see below) was the lone person who competed in the 10K and she did it in under an hour which is phenomenal! She got the Gold medal for her age group!

We had 2 Matt’s run who both did very well and finished under 28:00 minutes. One of the Matt’s even brought home a medal (see below)!

Susan and Tracey from The Doctors Vision Center had a strong pace the whole race and edged out a gentleman at the finish line (photo finish)! Gretchen from Relax! Massage Therapy made a personal best and shaved 10 minutes off her best time. Tina, who is photographer here in town,  and Birgit kept a great pace during the whole race, which I am very proud of them for keeping their pace.

Charlene and Pascal (right) of South ‘n France fought the good fight and finished strong! Jamie came out for support but she had injured her ankle just a few days before the race but she was a great cheerleader.

After the race we all had a healthy lunch as the awards ceremony was unfolding. We had 2 individuals Matt and Rebecca bring home medals! I am so proud of all who competed and look forward to competing in many more!

Rebecca (on left) took Gold for her age group and Matt (right) took Bronze for his age group!   Leave a comment below!

“Would you like to join the Fitness Together team in running a 5K?”, my trainer asked me just a few weeks after I had begun my personal training program.

Five kilometers is just 3.1 miles.  That didn’t seem so far to me.  I love to walk, and over those first initial weeks I had managed to successfully “run” a few quarter-mile stints on the treadmill.  I put run in quotes because my trainers calls it a “light jog”.  Whenever he says this, I roll my eyes.  His version of a light jog is my version of running faster than the wind.

I asked a few questions:

“Is it okay if I walk?”

“How long would it take me if I walked the whole thing?”

“Will a medical expert with life support be standing by?”

General stuff.  My trainer assured me that yes, I could do a combination of running and walking (did you think he’d let me off any easier than that?) and that I could probably finish in an hour.

Not only did I agree to sign up, I promised to recruit others to join me.  You see, my theory has always been that if I have to suffer, everyone else should suffer too.  Before long, I had managed to recruit my best friend (who happens to be a fitness instructor), a workout buddy and friend from cardio class, and believe it or not—my husband.

Here’s what you should know about my husband.  I call him the next George Burns.  He’s a funny guy, but he also lives the  George Burns lifestyle.  Pascal smokes, he eats anything he wants, he likes a good glass of cognac, and he doesn’t really exercise.

George Burns once said:

People keep asking me, “George, you are 88, how do you do it?” You make films, you do television, you give concerts, you record albums, smoke cigars, drink martinis, go out with pretty girls—how do you do it?

It’s simple. For instance, a Martini. You fill the glass with ice; then pour in some gin and a touch of dry vermouth, add an olive, and you’ve got yourself a Martini.

That’s my husband (and his sense of humor) to a tee.    But, I digress.

So there we were, rolling out of bed at 5:45 am on a Saturday morning to head over to our first 5K event.  It wasn’t the first time since agreeing to participate that I doubted my decision.  But, the weather was gorgeous and I’d made a commitment.  Furthermore, I’d made others commit to me.  There was no backing out.

My trainer met us near the parking lot and led us to our tent.  I spent some time chatting with my fellow team members who seemed even more apprehensive about the race than I was.   I actually felt calm and completely unconcerned until it was time to warm up.  “Let’s start with jumping jacks”, said our trainer.   I  groaned.  Nothing like my least favorite exercise to start the morning.  Perhaps it was a bad omen.

We lined up with the 210 other 5k participants and the starting gun fired.  Here are some highlights from my internal dialogue:

Minute One: Oh no!  This is awful.  It feels a hundred times more difficult than the treadmill.  I’ve only ran for about 15 seconds and I want to stop already.  I can’t do this.  There is no way I can do this.  Oh, look.  That’s my workout buddy up ahead.  The one who begged and pleaded with me not to leave her behind.  She’s totally running this thing and leaving me in the dust.

Minute Two: Okay.  That’s enough.  I’m stopping.  I cannot run this.  I’m going to have to walk it.  Oh my god!  Pascal is actually doing the “light jog”.  I’m shocked and impressed.  I can power walk next to Pascal and keep up even though he’s running.  This is good.  I’ll just keep pace with him.

Minute Ten: Look at those senior citizens way ahead of us.  They’re walking too, but it looks like they’re not making any effort.  Why does this feel so hard for me?

Minute Fifteen: I’m so hot.  I’m sweating.  I think I’m getting a sunburn.  I really don’t want a sunburn.  That would be awful.  I can feel sweat dripping down my forehead.  Perhaps I should veer off course and look for some shade.

Minute Eighteen: I think I’m getting a blister.   Right next to my pinkie toe on my left foot.  Oh yeah.  It’s definitely going to blister.  Did I wear the wrong socks?  I’ve never had a blister before.  Great.  Now I’m hot and sweaty and I have a blister.

Minute Twenty: I wonder how long it’s been.  I’m thinking close to an hour.  Why haven’t I seen the the two mile marker yet?

Minute Thirty: I can’t believe that Pascal is still jogging.  I’m so pathetic.  Here I am walking next to a guy who trained by eating a can of sweetened condensed milk for dessert last night and smoking two cigarettes with his black coffee for breakfast this morning and yet, he’s doing better than I am.  Thank God he’s here, though.  If he weren’t pushing me so hard to keep up to his pace, I’d be the last one in the race.

Minute Forty: Oh look!  There’s Justin.  It’s like my very own Biggest Loser moment.  All of the others have finished and he’s running back to get us.  That’s so nice!

Minute Forty-One: Justin wants me to run.  Really?  I don’t know if I can do it.  Okay.  I’ll try to humor him.

Minute Forty-Two: Well, I lasted for a minute.  Doesn’t that count for something?

Minute Forty-Six:  Justin wants to know what hurts more, my legs or my lungs.  Should I tell him that the two things that hurt the most are my brain and my boobs?

Minute Forty-Seven: Really?  He wants to cut a deal?  If I walk from here to the 3 mile marker, I have to run the final tenth of a mile.  Okay.  I’ll do it.

Minute Fifty: I cross the finish line running (okay, it was a light jog—whatever!!) next to my husband and my trainer.  The rest of the Fitness Together team is cheering us on!  Forget Biggest Loser.  This is Chariots of Fire and Rocky rolled into one.

We finished at the very end of the pack; only eight other participants had slower times than we did.  But in many respects, it felt like a huge win.  I waged war with myself for 50 minutes.  And thanks to my soldier of a husband and a sweet, yet sly drill sergeant trainer, I survived my first real test on the fitness battlefield.

There I was, struggling through another incredible difficult task that felt more like medieval torture than beneficial exercise.  As I recall, it was some variation on a squat.  My trainer, who could see me struggling, started to coach me through the end:  “Come on.  You can do it.  You’re strong.  You’re a warrior.”

And, my initial reaction was:  “I don’t want to be a warrior.  I want to be a princess.”

I’ve written before about how I revert to the mental state of a six-year-old when I walk into a personal training suite.  I want to be a princess?  What grown woman thinks to herself:  “No to warrior; yes to princess.”

But the thought stuck with me.  As I was regaling my fitness-enthusiast-best-friend with stories of my training one night, I told him about this moment.  He thinks that I am a nightmare of a client and feels quite sorry for my trainer.

“But do you really want to be a princess?”, he asked.  He knows me as an ambitious, driven woman who like to control, well, everything.  In fact, most people would describe me as the kind of girl who takes charge, organizing everything and everyone I encounter.  I am alpha woman.  Hear me roar.

And therein lies my desire to be a princess.  I see it this way.  Being in control, being responsible, being productive, being in charge, being a strong, independent modern woman is, quite frankly, exhausting.  I realize that I have avoided exercise and physical strength training, in part, because I’m afraid that if I get stronger I’ll have even more demands and responsibilities piled on top of me.

I long for a life with fewer battles and more balls.  I don’t want to wave a sword; I want to wave a handkerchief from my tower in the castle, get rescued be a noble knight, and spend the rest of my days wearing a tiara and trying on glass slippers.

I’ve never watched Xena:  Warrior Princess or Avatar and I’m not into anime, so I really don’t know the first thing about what it is to be both a warrior and a princess.  But as I travel across this strange terrain they call fitness, perhaps I will find out.

One thing is for sure: I’m going to need a sword and a shield to battle all of my demons and dragons.  Because princesses who hide in towers and wait to be rescued usually end up waiting for at least one hundred years.  I’ve got less than two years to reach my goal.

I’m happy to report that I’ve never had a serious encounter with the law.  The closest I’ve been to a courtroom in the past few years was when I rented My Cousin Vinny on Netflix.

Vinny and I may not know a lot about courtroom procedure, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to argue our case.  In fact, arguing isn’t my only skill; I’m also an excellent judge.  I can be just as impatient and sharp-tongued as Judge Judy.  I just love her sassy quips.  Two of my favorites are: “Beauty fades, but dumb is forever”; and “I’m speaking.  When my mouth moves, yours stops.”

In all seriousness, I spent several years working as a recruiter in New York City, one of the most competive job markets in the world.  I was paid a handsome salary to evalute, assess, and judge others.  I’m pretty skilled at reading people and quickly able to ascertain a person’s character.  Judging has always been one of my strengths.  I’ve had a lifetime of practice as I have always subjected my self to the harshest judgments of all.

When I showed up at Fitness Together for my first assessment, I was nervous to say the least.  The tables were turned.  Now, someone was going to ‘judge’ me on two of my greatest weaknesses:  health and fitness.  I hadn’t even met him yet, but I was terrified of my fitness “judge”.  I knew from his photo that he was young, handsome, muscular, and healthy.  In my mind, he was sure to be a harsh critic.

I prepared for the worst.  I showed up with all of my default defenses at the ready:  self-deprecating humor, my own strong criticisms, rationalizations and excuses, to name a few.

And a funny thing happened.  Much to my surprise, my trainer looked right past my weight, my size, and my atrophied muscles and saw me.  I know when I’m being judged and it was clear that the only person doing any judging that day was…well, me.

Where I felt hopelessness and despair, it seemed that my trainer saw possibility and promise.  Not in an over enthusiastic sales-pitch-driven kind of way, but in a most authentic and matter-of-fact manner:  “It’s going to be a long journey”, he explained.  “We’ll get to know one another really well.”

“How do you do it?”, I asked him later.

“Do what?”, he replied, clearly confused as to what ‘it’ could possibly be.

“How can you be so judgment-free?”

He looked so surprised I realized that perhaps it had never occurred to him that things should be any other way.  This was no court.  There was no trial. No contempt.  Nothing to defend.

At that moment, I realized that I wasn’t appearing before a judge or pleading my case to a jury.  If anything, I was sealing a deal with a partner in crime.  Someone who just might be able to help me break free from my self-created prison.

Of course, once the deal was sealed, my partner in crime went a little Judge Judy on me.  This scene from her courtroom could very easily apply to our first few weeks of training:

Judge Judy (Trainer): Why are you here?

Witness (40CarrotGirl):  I’m here for pain and suffering.

Judge Judy (Trainer), exasperated:  Yours or mine?

Recently, my trainer posted his Top 100 Reasons to Exercise on this blog.  And, everything he said is true.  Exercising is good for bone density and glucose tolerance and productivity at work, but with a few exceptions (like #4), he missed most of the reasons why I am currently exercising.

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you will see that I’m not unlike a lot of American women.  I let my love for food, my distaste for athletics, and my sedentary lifestyle creep up on me until I was so fat and out of shape I didn’t even recognize myself.  At 38, I decided to begin a quest to return to fit and fabulous by the age of 40.  That said, here are the top reasons why I exercise:

1.  Because I want my wedding band to be loose enough so that I can wear it for more than two hours without cutting off my circulation.

2.  So that my I can fit back into 90% of my wardrobe.

3.  Because I want to sit in one of those god-awful cheap white plastic lawn chairs without fear that it will stay stuck to my butt when I decide to get up.

4.  So that I can have one chin instead of two.

5.  So that I can shop for clothes that I love, not clothes that fit.

6.  So that strangers will not inquire about my due date when I’m not really expecting.

7.  Because I want to know if looking good really is the best revenge.

8.  Because I want to wear my wedding dress again.

9.  Because I want my husband to be able to pick me up without risking a hernia.

10.  Because I refuse to eat fake cheese and no fat sour cream.

11.  Because I want to be in shape for knocking the adventurous items off of my bucket list:  a bicycle tour in Europe, learning how to ski, trying horseback riding and hang gliding too.

12.  So that my outside matches my inside.

13.  Because I’m tired of wearing black–it’s really not my color.

14.  Because I want to be better at yoga.

15.  So that I won’t just be another ‘pretty face’  (For years I’ve owned a magnet of a 1950’s girl kneeling at her bedside, saying her evening prayers.  It says:  Dear God, Thank you for the pretty face, but the fat ass has got to go!”  Amen!)

16.  So I can run a big race.  I used to think a marathon or a half-marathon, but after walking my first 5k, I think I’ll settle for running one of those first.

17.  So that I can live long enough to be one of those sprightly, sassy granny types.

18.  Because I want to feel energetic, fit and healthy.

19.  Because I don’t want people to describe me as ‘fat’.

20.  Because I’d like my body fat percentage to be lower than the amount of fat in Brie cheese.

21.  Because I’d like to watch The Biggest Loser without thinking that I could be a candidate for the show.

22.  So that I can wear courdoroy pants without worrying about a friction fire between my thighs.

23.  So that I will believe my husband’s compliments and not wonder if he’s been smoking crack.

24.  Because I’d like to have the confidence to wear sleeveless dresses.

25.  So that I can be a strong woman in every sense of the word.

26.  So that my weight and my size take up less mental space too.

27.  So that I can ham it up for the cameras.

28.  So that I can get up gracefully after sitting on the floor.

29.  So that my options for knee-high and thigh-high boots extend beyond fishing waders.

30.  So that I will one day look and feel fabulous at the same time.

From a trainers point of view! Many people have said to me “I know exercise is good for me but it is just so hard to find time and energy to do it”. So what I have done was compiled a list of reasons that one should exercise and some of the benefits of putting that body in motion! So I have gathered this information from many different sources to help individuals realize just some of the benefits of exercise!

1. Reduces your risk of getting heart disease.

2. Increases your level of muscle strength.

3. Improves the functioning of your immune system.

4. Enhances sexual desire, performance and satisfaction.

5. Helps you to more effectively manage stress.

6. Helps you to lose weight-especially fat weight.

7. Improves the likelihood of survival from a myocardial infarction (heart attack).

8. Can help relieve the pain of tension headaches—perhaps the most common type of headache.

9. Improves your body’s ability to use fat for energy during physical activity.

10. Increases the density and breaking strength of bones.

11. Helps to preserve lean body tissue.

12. Reduces the risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure).

13. Increases the density and breaking strength of ligaments and tendons.

14. Improves coronary (heart) circulation.

15. Increases circulating levels of HDL (good) cholesterol.

16. Assists in efforts to stop smoking.

17. Reduces your risk of developing Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes.

18. Can help improve short-term memory in older individuals.

19. Helps to maintain weight loss—unlike dieting, alone.

20. Helps relieve many of the common discomforts of pregnancy (backache, heartburn, constipation, etc.).

21. Reduces your anxiety level.

22. Helps control blood pressure in people with hypertension.

23. Reduces the viscosity of your blood.

24. Reduces vulnerability to various cardiac dysrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms).

25. Increases your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max—perhaps the best measure of your physical working capacity).

26. Helps to overcome jet lag.                 

27. Slows the rate of joint degeneration in people with osteoarthritis.

28. Lowers your resting heart rate.

29. Helps to boost creativity.                              

30. Reduces circulating levels of triglycerides.

31. Helps the body resist upper respiratory tract infections.

32. Increases your anaerobic threshold, allowing you to work or exercise longer at a higher level, before a significant amount of lactic acid builds up.

33. Reduces medical and health care expenses.

34. Improves ability to recover from physical exertion.

35. Helps speed recovery from chemotherapy treatments.

36. Increases ability to supply blood to the skin for cooling.

37. Increases the thickness of the cartilage in your joints.

38. Gives you more energy to meet the demands of daily life, and provides you with a reserve to meet the demands of unexpected emergencies.

39. Increases your level of muscle endurance.

40. Helps you sleep easier and better.

41. Improves posture.

42. Improves athletic performance.

43. Helps you to maintain your resting metabolic rate.

44. Reduces the risk of developing colon cancer.

45. Increases your tissues’ responsiveness to the actions of insulin (i.e., improves tissue sensitivity for insulin), helping to better control blood sugar, particularly if you are a Type II diabetic.

46. Helps to relieve constipation.

47. Expands blood plasma volume.

48. Reduces the risk of developing prostate cancer.

49. Helps to combat substance abuse.

50. Helps to alleviate depression.

51. Increases your ability to adapt to cold environments.

52. Helps you maintain proper muscle balance.

53. Reduces the rate and severity of medical complications associated with hypertension.

54. Helps to alleviate certain menstrual symptoms.

55. Lowers your heart rate response to submaximal physical exertion.

56. Helps to alleviate low-back pain.

57. Helps to reduce the amount of insulin required to control blood sugar levels in Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetics.

58. Improves mental alertness.

59. Improves respiratory muscle strength and muscle endurance—particularly important for asthmatics.

60. Reduces your risk of having a stroke.

61. Helps you to burn excess calories.

62. Increases your cardiac reserve.

63. Improves your physical appearance.

64. Offsets some of the negative side-effects of certain antihypertensive drugs.

65. Increases your stroke volume (the amount of blood the heart pumps with each beat).

66. Improves your self-esteem.

67. Reduces your susceptibility for coronary thrombosis (a clot in an artery that supplies the heart with blood).

68. Helps you to relax.               

69. Reduces the risk of developing breast cancer.

70. Improves mental cognition (a short-term effect only).

71. Maintains or improves joint flexibility.

72. Improves your glucose tolerance.

73. Reduces workdays missed due to illness.

74. Protects against “creeping obesity” (the slow but steady weight gain that occurs as you age).

75. Enhances your muscles’ abilities to extract oxygen from your blood.

76. Increases your productivity at work.

77. Reduces your likelihood of developing low-back problems.       

78. Improves your balance and coordination.

79. Allows you to consume greater quantities of food and still maintain caloric balance.

80. Provides protection against injury.

81. Decreases (by 20 to 30 percent) the need for antihypertensive medication, if you are hypertensive.

82. Improves your decision-making abilities.

83. Helps reduce and prevent the immediate symptoms of menopause (hot flashes, sleep disturbances, irritability), and decrease the long-term risks of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and obesity.

84. Helps to relieve and prevent “migraine headache attacks”.

85. Reduces the risk of endometriosis (a common cause of infertility).

86. Helps to retard bone loss as you age, thereby reducing your risk of developing osteoporosis.

87. Helps decrease your appetite (a short-term effect only).

88. Improves pain tolerance and mood if you suffer from osteoarthritis.

89. Helps prevent and relieve the stresses that cause carpal tunnel syndrome.

90. Makes your heart a more efficient pump.

91. Helps to decrease left ventricular hypertrophy (a thickening of the walls of the left ventricle) in people with hypertension.

92. Improves your mood.

93. Helps to increase your overall health awareness.

94. Reduces the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.

95. Helps you to maintain an independent lifestyle.

96. Reduces the level of abdominal obesity—a significant health-risk factor.

97. Increases the diffusion capacity of the lungs, enhances the exchange of oxygen from your lungs to your blood.

98. Improves heat tolerance.                                  

99. Improves your overall quality of life.

100. Lifelong regular exercise may be protective against the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Sources from the American College of Sports Medicine manual, Exercise Testing and Prescription (A health related approach), Dynamic Health, American Council on Exercise manual, and several others.