What is the easiest and cheapest form of exercise? Walking.

It requires no special equipment or access to a gym. All you need is a good pair of shoes and a safe place to put one foot in front of the other.

Exercise is an important component of the four-week Coronary Heart Improvement Project or CHIP.
Program founder Dr. Diehl calls exercise, “today’s fountain of youth.”

Why? Because of all the good things it does for you. For instance, exercise helps you feel good. It strengthens your heart. It lowers your blood pressure. It lowers LDL cholesterol levels in the blood and often raises HDL cholesterol. It strengthens your bones by helping to retain calcium and other important minerals. It lifts depression. It helps relieve anxiety and stress. It increases overall energy and efficiency. It helps maintain desirable weight levels. It improves circulation and makes for clearer minds, better sleep, and faster healing of damaged body areas.
If exercise produce such miracles, why aren’t we all marching around town? There’s a whole bunch of reasons we don’t exercise. Of course, they aren’t very good reasons, but we use them … “I don’t have time.” “It’s too hot.” “It’s boring.” “It’s hard.” And my personal favorite, “I hate it.”

When you weigh the benefits of exercise against the reasons why we don’t do it, it doesn’t make much sense.
To start an exercise program, just do it. You don’t have to walk a mile the first day out. Set modest goals — a block, for instance, but do it. You can add distance as you gain strength and endurance.

To read more, see the print edition of the Hutchinson Leader for Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008.

(Kay Johnson is a staff writer at the Hutchinson Leader. She can be reached at johnson@hutchinsonleader.com [2]).