How to fit exercise into your schedule
Many people have reserved a small area in their homes as miniature gymnasiums. Nothing elaborate, but perhaps a mat and an inexpensive set of weights. I tell them not to shoot for a world’s record. I tell them to try a weight which is ridiculously easy to lift, and then see how many times they can do it.
Strength and stamina are acquired by easy repetitive efforts at frequent intervals. Strength and stamina are the two important S’s of fitness.
Speed and skill should be reserved for the serious competitor. Exercising at irregular and infrequent intervals is asking for trouble. Trainers and coaches agree that training every day or every other day for a relatively short period is far more beneficial than an extraordinary workout once a week.
How many people lead sedentary lives during the week and then overdo on weekends! A classic example is the bank president who warms his leather swivel chair Monday through Friday and then plays three sets of tennis with his prep school son under a boiling sun on Sunday.
Weekend athletes need not worry when they will die— they will die on a weekend. Three or four workouts a week of about thirty minutes each can bring a person into excellent shape. Because weekends do afford extra time, they can include two sessions. But one or two workouts should be reserved for the middle of the week.
The question is how to find the time.
It’s best to allow convenient scheduling. People who often need recreation and exercise the most are the ones who are “too busy” to find time. One immediately wonders just how much they really want to exercise. Active people are usually efficient. “If you want a job done, pick the busiest person you know” is a familiar saying which honors this ability. Given a genuine desire, the most hard pressed patients I have known can invariably arrange thirty to sixty minutes for themselves. This period must be set aside in advance and become part of the day’s routine.
Otherwise spare time may never come along because things just never do seem to slacken off.
Two blocks of time which have fitted well into my own program are before breakfast and from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. unless medical emergencies intervene. Rash indeed would be my secretary if she scheduled elective appointments at a time I have reserved for myself.
Remember that time allotted to recreation includes not only the period of exercise but changing clothes, showering, and traveling. For these reasons I long ago gave up golf and skiing, and now enjoy sports which begin and end at my back door.
Take golf, for example, which is a sport I love. Here is a game combining relaxation, camaraderie, and skill. Having made several phone calls to his partners to agree on a convenient date and time, our man slips into his golf clothes at 8:00 A.M., collects his accoutrements, and drives out to the course. Time (conservatively) is 8:30 A.M. Three hours later, if there are no divot donkeys ahead of him and if his miserly partner can be torn away from that clump of gorse where his lost ball is forever interred, he winds up an enjoyable eighteen holes. Time now (very conservatively) is 11:30 A.M.
Chances are his bag makes the circuit in a carrier or over the shoulder of a caddy. Hopefully he did not resort to using an electric go-cart to remove completely his last chance for exercise. Following the customary score-card post mortems, nineteenth hole, trip back home, and shower, he once again is father and husband ready for Sunday dinner (time now 1:00 P.M.). Elapsed time five hours. Yet two hours a week of properly planned recreation and exercise could bring him into excellent shape!
Because active people do have limited time and must frequently utilize odd hours, it can be a fruitless waste to select sports which require several participants. Hours have been wasted trying to round up men for a game of hockey or basketball. And baseball is impossible!
It is so much the better if a sport can be played day or night. Not only do certain outdoor activities qualify, but so does the entire range of indoor sports. Most urban areas have a variety of YMCA’s, gymnasiums, rinks, arenas, swimming pools, and armouries.
