Function is Everything
The primary goal of exercise should be to improve “functional ability.” Functional ability refers to your body’s ability to move so you can more comfortably perform activities of daily living, recreational pursuits and sporting events. Improved functional ability enables you to lift packages and carry your children without straining your back, enjoy an occasional walk with your spouse and maintain your balance and coordination while dancing. The best way to improve your functional ability is to create stronger muscles throughout their full range of motion. Increasing muscular strength simultaneously improves a long list of other physical components and your body will automatically become firmer and leaner.

Fun Fetish
Spread the word that becoming more fit and having stronger muscles requires hard work. The fun comes after the hard work - not during the exercise. Fun, as it relates to proper exercise, comes in the form of compliments you receive from friends and family. It comes in the form of self-satisfying glances in the mirror early in the morning as you prepare for work. It comes in the form of not requiring a walker or a cane when you are 70 or 80 years old.


The Six-Week Syndrome
Starting an exercise program can create anxiety and perhaps in some instances, excitement. From an intellectual standpoint, starting a new routine or operating a piece of properly designed exercise equipment can initially be very stimulating. It can feel exhilarating to work your body through a full range of motion and challenge your body physically for perhaps the very first time. As the program continues, approximately around the six-week period (or later), the so-called “novelty” of the actual exercise experience begins to decrease and in some instances eventually wear out. This is natural since your body needs to be continually challenged in order for it to make ongoing improvements. This is the time that you really need to concentrate and put forth the necessary effort to continue making physical improvements. Some individuals, unfortunately, regardless of their results, will terminate their program at this point in order to search out an easier, more amusing form of recreation under the mistaken belief that they are once again experiencing “exercise”.


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