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If all the benefits of exercise could be squeezed into a pill, it would be considered a miracle drug—the “rejuvenation pill.” Everyone would want it and would be willing to pay thousands of dollars for the extraordinary advantages—which come with no side-effects! No one would want to be without it. So why don’t more people get off their behinds and exercise?
Newspapers, books, television shows, and magazines extol the benefits of physical exercise and activity as a means to physical fitness and a longer life. In every town and city in the United States you can find bike paths, jogging trails, health clubs, gyms, racquet clubs, tennis courts, aerobics classes, dance studios, martial arts classes, and community recreation facilities. You would surmise that the country is caught up in a frenzy of fitness. Although it is true that our population values exercise more than ever before, it is also true that obesity has reached epidemic proportions in this land of abundance and affluence. One-third of the population is overweight. In Black and Hispanic cultures and in low-income groups, 50 percent of the women are obese. Life doesn’t have to be that way—and you don’t have to be in the... |
