THE BEST GYM IN THE WORLD? YOU'RE LIVING IN IT.

Why would anyone exercise if they didn't have to?  Don't we get enough exercise cleaning house, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, washing the car and picking up after our children, just to name a few things?  Exercise?  Hell, I'm tired enough at the end of the day without going to a gym.  And for exercise?  Ha!

The truth is, we do get quiet a bit of exercise in the course of our day doing all the things mentioned above, and more.  But that's not enough; we need more.  Just go to any shopping mall and watch the girth of the people passing by to understand why.  As a nation, we are overweight and out of shape.

But in addition to badly needed weight control, we need more strength exercise, more flexibility exercise and more exercise to build endurance -- precisely so we are not exhausted at the end of the day.

I've been somewhat of a health nut ever since President John Kennedy created the President's Council on Physical Fitness back in the early 1960s.  Before that I was like most young men, willing to get by on my native, i.e., youthful, strength and flexibility.

In high school I went out for the football team, but I never took the conditioning program seriously.  I was young and strong, more or less, and that was good enough.  In college I was too busy burning my candle at both ends to give much thought to my health.  Even while serving in the U.S. Army I did only what was necessary to stay out of trouble.  When we fell out for morning PT (physical training) at the ungodly hour of five o'clock, I did what I had to do to keep from getting, in his words, the sergeant's "boot up my ass."

I'm not even sure why I became more interested in maintaining or improving my health in the early 1960s except that the president made it seem like the patriotic thing to do.  Which, on reflection, is a pretty dumb reason for getting involved in an exercise program.  Nevertheless, I got involved and have been involved ever since.

I ordered the president's book on physical fitness and both my wife and I started doing the exercises.  It's been an on-again off-again affair ever since.

I never seemed to have the time or the money to go to a commercial gym.  Besides, back then you had to get a gym membership for a full year and I knew that I would not be able to take advantage of my membership all year.  For one thing, I was gone part of the summer working at a 4-H camp as lifeguard.

So, I concentrated on walking and on doing the exercises in the government booklet.  I've always been a good walker, and walking, I understood, was one of the better forms of exercise.  It was a low-impact exercise that works many of the major muscles.

After moving to Schenectady, NY I found that there were too many months when getting outside to walk was next to impossible.  That's when we bought our first treadmill.  Actually, now that I think about it, we bought an exercise bike first and later bought a cheap treadmill.  Never buy a cheap treadmill!  It is a waste of money.  Cheap exercise equipment is always a waste of money.

Over the years I kept going back to some of the strength and range-of-motion exercises.  I created my own program as my body aged and my needs changed.  And at one point, after retiring, I taught an exercise program for seniors at one of the campgrounds where I spent the winter.  (It helped me stay in shape and earned me a reduced campground rate for the winter.)

Well, time marches on and your body ages with time.  Rheumatism, tendinitis, coronary problems, knee and shoulder problems and other joint, muscle or breathing problems cause most, if not all, of us to curtail our physical activity -- including any formal exercise program we may have had in the past.

Fear not.  I found an exercise program that you can do right in your bedroom, family room or wherever YOU are.  It is the Real Age You2 Workout that you can find at this link: http://www.realage.com/StayingYoung/YOUToolsTips.aspx?tip=21. 

This great exercise program requires no special equipment.  The authors claim you have "the best gym in the world.  You're living in it."  Celebrity trainer Joel Harper designed the program and he says you can do the 18 exercises in fewer than 20 minutes.  I have not yet reached that point myself, but you might.  Just the same, imagine being able to get a "complete strength-and-stretch workout" in 20-30 minutes anywhere you might be: home, office or motel room.  No equipment, no excuses.

Here are the first two exercises to give you an idea of how low-impact they are.  (I hope it's all right for me to copy and paste these pictures here.)

1. Yo-Yo (Warm-up)

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent. Interweave your fingers and bring your hands and elbows up to shoulder height. Turn your palms out, so now you can see all your knuckles. Keeping your torso upright, slowly twist to the right and left, 10 times each side, to where it feels comfortable. Inhale going to one side, exhale back to the other.

2. Punching Bag (Strengthens arms and shoulders)

Lift your hands and elbows to shoulder height, make your hands into fists, and turn your knuckles facing away from you. Spin your hands around in a circle as far away from your chest as you can. Keep your shoulders relaxed, away from your ears. Do it 20 times clockwise, then 20 counterclockwise.

Please check out the link above.  Download and print the workout program.  Then start transforming your body.  You'll be glad you did.