Men’s Health Month: Get Fit and Stay Active

In honor of Men’s Health Month, I took some time to scour the Internet to determine the best way  to get fit and promote healthiness.  I reviewed several sites, read their information and began to write a post of my findings.  Quickly I realized that I was writing just another dumbed down, eat right and exercise post.  Since I’m pretty sure everyone has already heard that before, I decided to keep researching to find something a little more substantial to share.

"Health is the vital principle of bliss, and exercise, of health." ~ James Thomson

So I clicked on few more links and dug a little deeper.  Quickly I began to find a few interesting tidbits of information.  Unfortunately, the articles quickly began to contradict each other.  One site’s must-do thing was the next site’s thing to avoid.  These contradictions may be why we have so many out of shape obese people walking around!        

"If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all." ~ Joey Adams

After all the reading, here’s what I've concluded...

"The greatest gift we have is the gift of life.  We understand that.  That comes from our Creator.  We're given a body.  Now you may or not like it, but you can maximize that body the best it can be maximized." ~ Mike Ditka

It is very difficult to define “fit”.  It is like defining wealthy.  Is someone wealthy simply because they have more money than someone else or is wealth determined by the overall value of someone's life?

"Happiness lies first of all in health." ~ George William Curtis

There are two types of fitness: performance-related and health-related fitness.  Performance-related fitness is directly related to one's athletic ability.  This may include how fast someone can run a race or how high they can jump.  Health-related fitness, on the other hand, is related to the ability to perform activities that improve your health by lowering risks of health complications such as back pain, high blood pressure or diabetes.  This relates to a person's aerobic ability, flexibility, muscular strength, and overall body composition.            

"Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate.  The world wasn't formed in a day, and neither were we.  Set small goals and build upon them." ~ Lee Haney

Performance-related fitness is nice, but health-related fitness is what’s more important.  Just because you can run a marathon doesn't mean that you will live forever in perfect health.  I think where many people stumble in their paths to getting fit is the fear that they will look foolish or silly. They avoid doing any health-related fitness activities because they don’t have stellar performance-fitness. So instead of doing something simple and improving steadily over time, they either do nothing or search for a miracle pill. By doing simple exercises you will not only get healthier, but you will - over time - improve your performance ability. It's a win-win. (The Single Best Exercise is...)      

"Exercise is done against one's wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse." ~ George A. Sheehan

The only way to live a healthy life is to have healthy habits.  While my research didn't uncover anything ground breaking, it did make it clear to me that being active is an important component to getting or staying healthy.  If you need to, start small... become a local mall walker, walk your dog, do morning stretches, etc.  Over time you will see improvement and can try more ambitious activities.  Who knows, maybe you will join a team or sign-up for a race?   

"Just do it." ~ Nike