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Who wants to go out in the (pick one) cold, heat, snow, rain, smog, crowd, desert, wilderness....and get all smelly, aching muscles, etc. Besides it requires a whole new outfit of clothes these days, and if they fit in the beginning, I sure hope they don't after awhile.
Oh, there are worlds of machines with promises to match their price tags, but remember the part about getting smelly and aching muscles?
Why exercise at all? Because the mirror, the family, the friends, and finally even the doctor insist.
Of course, jocks don't care if their exercise is easy, they would rather have a challenge. So someone you love is not a jock, and perhaps, neither are you.
Without exercise muscles lose their tone, become flabby, then tend to cramp when needed. Since the muscles also do much to shape the body, when the muscle tone is lost, you just plain look older, no matter how spiffy you dress. And you will feel older, too.
Feeling good is a great benefit! It usually takes awhile to enjoy that benefit, but it is well worth exercising for.
Stay healthier. Toxins tend to build up in the body until they make us sick. Exercise helps to get rid of them first.
Building muscle helps to speed up the metabolism, giving a person more energy, and helps lose OR gain weight, whichever the body needs.
Good muscle tone also helps to make a shapely body, either femine or masculine, wow!
Exercise helps to build stamina, so a person doesn't get tired so quickly.
Exercise helps a person to sleep better at night, thus feel more rested.
Exercise helps lower high fat levels in the blood as well as in other places. That helps to prevent certain kinds of strokes and heart disease.
Some exercises help to build up lung capacity, moving more oxygen to the cells where it is needed for optimum health.
Certain exercises build the muscle which pull in stomachs and support the spine, easing or erasing back pain. Other types of exercise help to ban the blues, easing depression.
Probably...especially if you haven't been to doctor recently AND you are really out of shape or have a medical problem. Of course, if your doctor has already told you to exercise, then what are you waiting for? Otherwise, IF you do start easy...with easy exercises, there should be no danger. Please do not start out gung ho, trying or doing more than recommended (see Start Easy next!)
Real injury could result from trying to do more than you are in shape for. Forget about target heart rates and all that stuff that your jock friends might try to teach you unless you really want to know. If you have not been a jock recently, if at all, that is not the place to start. Target heart rates are NOT EASY. However, it doesn't hurt to know how to check your heart rate or to know what your resting heart rate is, etc.
We are talking EASY here. A prominent heart doctor told of getting an eldery patient from house-bound to running a marathon. How? Walking just a few steps in the beginning. When he could do that easily, then adding a step or two for several days. Then when he could finally walk across the room easily, he walked a few steps into the next room as well. Eventually, he was able to walk to the street and back, then a little ways down the block, a little further, then halfway, etc. If I remember correctly, it took a whole year before he could walk a mile, and several more years before he could run a marathon. Not that you would ever want to run a marathon (26 miles), or even run, period.
The moral is, even if you are bedridden, in a wheel chair, or obese, or asthma, or frail, have rhumatism, too busy, too tired, or just lazy, it is not too late to start exercising, IF you start slow and easy.
No matter which type of exercise you choose to start with, the first day should be only slightly more than you might do every day. If you are a housewife who chases after toddlers, cooks, cleans and does the laundry, runs the errands and does the shopping, leaving you exhausted, but you know that does NOT keep you in shape! What a bummer. But you are probably in better shape than your husband who sits at a desk all day and in front of the TV each evening until bedtime. He might be much stronger than you are. He might not even be the least bit fat... yet. Somehow men don't seem to gain unwanted pounds as easily or as young as women do. 'Tain't fair. Don't be fooled though, his fat is more likely in his arteries, setting him up for a heart attack someday.
And you men aren't always the trim one in your family. Do you still have abs? Or do you have the beginings of what is politely known as a "beer belly"? OK, so your belly already hangs over your belt...but just when you sit down. Do you LIKE that? There are lots of things you can do to look AND feel better. Easy exercise is a good start towards regaining the spunk you had when you were younger.
So you both need exercise. You may, or may not, want to exercise together. It might be better to pair off with a friend in about the same shape you are.
Some types of exercises which may be both fun and easy include walking, dancing, swimming, rebounding (whatever that is), and even darts. Darts an exercise? Yup, anything which gets you off your duff and moving qualifies. There are many other types of exercises which qualify as easy, too. An E-Book, "ABCs of Easy Exercise" not only explains how to get started but also much more. It even includes a chart to keep you motivated. Exercise may be measured by time, repetitions, and some types by distance. There are many other measurements, but we won't worry about them. We want this easy.
Whatever type of exercise you start with, only do as many repetitions, time, or distance as you can do very easily for the first day. Take a warm soak in the tub afterwards if you can. If you are not stiff or sore at all the next day, then repeat the same amount of exercise, otherwise skip exercising the next day. (Later you should cross-train...alternating types of exercise, but start out with only one.)
When you can do a certain amount of exercise easily 3 days in a row, then on the fourth day, increase it ever so slightly. If you could do 3 repetitions when you started, increase to 4 repetitions for the next several days. If you could exercise for 2 minutes to start, make it 2 1/2 minutes next, then 3 minutes, 4 minutes, etc. By the time you can do 10 minutes as easily as you had done the first 2 minutes, then you can add 2 minutes at a time.
Distance works the same way, whether it is measured in just steps, or in blocks, or even miles. (Hey, I don't know out of shape you may or may not be!) Just do not choose jogging as a beginning exercise. That is an easy way to hurt yourself. Walking is OK if you are able & choose to.
It is OK to skip one or two days each week. Try not to skip 3 days in a row, ever. Even if you are sick in bed, you should sytematically stretch and relax the different muscle groups. That can be done in a cast, keeping the muscles from wasting. If a person is in a coma, or paralyzed, then somebody else should massage and stretch their muscles and flex their joints for them until they are able to do it for themselves again.