Aerobics Without Trying

Aerobics Without Trying

Aerobics
Home

Aerobics Without Trying
by Andrew W. Saul

Some people buy expensive athletic footwear. Here is how to get all the benefits of exercise on a shoestring.

1. Adopt a dog. Even if you don't like to exercise, dogs like to. Here's an excuse to walk, jog, or run: blame the dog. A dog HAS to go out several times daily; here's automatic exercise for both of you. Dogs are good company and they don't talk. Plus, nothing adds security to a lone runner like a 90-pound German Shepherd.

2. Buy a pickup truck instead of a car. All your friends will want you to help them move. Guaranteed weight-lifting opportunities await you; not to mention how alluring trucks can be to the opposite sex.

3. Better yet, don't have a vehicle at all. Two bags of groceries looks like nothing... until you have to carry them a mile home. I know; before I learned to drive, I lived in Vermont. There are few stores there... and a lot of hills. Which brings us to the next idea:

4. Always choose a house on top of a hill. Or, choose a top floor apartment. It is quieter anyway, and you have daily exercise on the stairs.

5. Many couples already know that making love can be good aerobic exercise.

6. Start a garden. Turn over the soil by hand (yes, using a shovel as well) and you will get real exercise. Then the planting, weeding, watering and harvesting activities are also good exercise. May I also add that this is one of the few exercises that feeds you as a side benefit?

7. Get a woodstove. Not only will you likely save money heating with wood, but you get exercise in supplying the stove with the very wood it burns. Henry David Thoreau said that wood warms us three times: once in cutting it and hauling it in, once from the heat it provides as it burns, and once more from the warm glow you feel as you watch the fire.

Curiously, many of the above exercise ideas were life's regular activities for our pioneer forefathers and mothers. They did not need health spas and gyms. They got exercise in keeping warm, keeping fed, and taking care of their family. The Amish still do. The average Amish man gets over 52 hours of exercise a week; women 42 hours per week. [Bassett DR et al. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 36(1):p 79-85, Jan 2004.]

Simple, cheap and effective. Of course, we are skeptical of anything like that. How can something simple and cheap POSSIBLY be effective?

Life is like that. So is exercise.

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

Andrew W. Saul

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

Neither the author nor the webmaster has authorized the use of their names or the use of any material contained within in connection with the sale, promotion or advertising of any product or apparatus. Single-copy reproduction for individual, non-commercial use is permitted providing no alterations of content are made, and credit is given.