The benefits of exercise are myriad. It makes you feel good about yourself, burns excess body fat, grows and maintains muscle, strengthens bones and joints, helps flexibility, deepens sleep, improves appearance, creates a high, provides goals to achieve, lifts depression, relieves stress, increases self esteem, reverses and prevents disease and helps you feel alive and youthful... that is, if you do it in right way.
Exercise would be as normal as breathing in the wild setting. If we were not industriously finding food, building shelters and fighting off saber-toothed tigers we would not survive. Under those circumstances eating was the reward for exercise. In the modern world we don’t have to exercise to any extent to get our food. We may have cleverly changed our circumstances but we have not changed the rule that eating is the fuel and the reward for exercise. If you are not exercising you should not be eating… or at least doing very little of it.
Exercise like you mean it – none of the namby-pamby, faking it stuff. If you do not breathe hard or briefly exhaust muscles two to three times a week, you are probably not doing yourself any good. Do you go to a gym and spend lots of time lying on a soft mat stretching? Did you spend $120 on those Nike cross-trainers, pay that big club fee and shop for that just right, looking good leotard workout suit to lie around stretching? Do you do nice and easy, slow, partial reps with five lbs. while gabbing with friends or a trainer? Don’t kid yourself. Nothing comes easy. Yes, you will have to breathe hard and strain and grunt a little and even experience some soreness.
Recently at a gym I saw a personal trainer who looked as if training really wasn't a part of her life, instructing a client. Weights used were miniscule, range of motion far less than it should be, constant chatter, frequent swigs on a sugared sports drink and lots of long breaks in between sets. No sweat, no strain, no breathing hard, no pushing to limits. I believe some trainers make it as easy as they can to make sure people return. Since most people don't want any discomfort, these trainers keep workouts easy, comfortable, casual – and meaningless.
Pull downs of 150 pounds is reasonable. Bench presses of 150 pounds are reasonable. Dead lifts and squats of 150 pounds are reasonable. Why? Because your frame already is handling 150 lbs. when you squat and rise (squats), pull yourself up on to a branch (chins) and push yourself up off the floor (push ups). To safely increase musculature it is much better to increase reps than to increase the load over body weight. Stick with it, be patient, have the long view and you can stay strong and look fit for a lifetime. Start swinging around the mega-weights and the right injury could sideline you for a lifetime, giving you an excuse to be weak and flabby. (I say excuse because one can always do some form of exercise regardless of their condition or limitations.)
I am not just telling you, this is what I do. Exercise and sport have always been a part of my life. I have tried about everything and have suffered with injuries from mistakes. But to this day I lift respectable weights and continue to set new goals, run sprints at good speed and compete with guys less than one third my age in difficult sports like two on two sand volleyball and one on one competitive indoor badminton (not the back yard version but the indoor, 220 mph smash kind). My ability to do these things brings great joy to life by giving me something physically to achieve, camaraderie and the sense that I am still alive and capable. Even after umpteen gazillion decades of life I am still challenging myself with weights and pressing myself with aerobics and tough sports. And yes, I do get injured. I've had them all, it seems. I'm presently recovering from overdoing it with stiff-legged dead lifts (lifting a heavy barbell from the floor by bending over with the legs stiff—the reason I told you above not to do this) coupled with heavy full squats (barbell on back and squatting up and down). These are difficult weight lifting movements to help increase running speed. I just recovered from shoulder and elbow injuries from too many smashes in badminton and jump serves in beach volleyball. I'm not complaining nor bragging, just letting you know that I practice what I preach. The benefits I derive, in spite of the inevitable set backs and injuries, I would like everyone to enjoy.
You will also have to make accommodations for age… but not before it is absolutely necessary. No “too old” excuses before your time. You can be fit and athletic in your fifties and beyond. But with time everything does wear and become more fragile and thus break more easily. You cannot force your body at 70 to be what it was at 18 regardless of exercise and diet. You can most certainly reach new physical levels in your 30’s through 50’s. What age takes away in physical vigor, it gives in desire and commitment. The danger is imposing an overly ambitious will on a body without a capacity to match. With age you will notice that exercise that is too intense will feel like you are tearing down, not stimulating growth. It is. The fine line between improving or maintaining strength and fitness, and doing damage gets thinner and thinner with age. So listen to your body and adjust. Be content with being the best you can be, not trying to be what you cannot possibly be. No ninety-year-old has ever won an Olympic event or set a world’s record.
Think about the long term. You want staying power. You want to be able to exercise for life, not for a short spurt and then be incapacitated.
Your body is a gift and responsibility. It is a moral duty to take care of it. Exercise like you mean it but use the wisdom of moderation. Enjoy the health that results and the wonderful, feel-alive dimension that is added to life as well.