You don’t have to be athletic to be physically fit. Traditionally, organized athletics have tended to develop super-fit competitors for the entertainment of a physically inept society.

Our modern life-style fosters unfitness. Many technological advances are intended to eliminate physical exertion from everyday activities. The automobile and television are key contributors to our sedentary lifestyle, and we have become accustomed to other automated energy savers: elevators, riding lawn mowers, motorized golf carts, snow blowers and various remote control devices. The eighties brought us the home computer. Such advances enable us to carry out our everyday chores more easily. Microcomputers not only enable us to keep our home or business records in order but also provide hours of enjoyable play with computer games of many kinds. Or just surfing and chatting. However, the rapid repetitive movements required in manipulating the controls and/or keyboard does little for physical fitness.

Overeating, addiction and laziness are other detrimental characteristics of a sedentary life-style. At the same time, we live in a competitive society characterized by pressing domestic problems, business obligations and deadline tensions. All of these have an impact on the physiological systems of the body and appear to affect our state of health. Your emotions, nerves, glands, and mental state along with your heart, lungs, and muscles are all fused into a complex, wonderful organism — your body. Thus, there is a dire need, more than at any time in the history of humankind, to seek out stimulating exercise that will offset the perils of modern living. In fact, working out regularly to maintain a high level of fitness enables you to enjoy the privilege of all our modern gadgets and our computers.

Many men and women feel that their daily work provides them with enough exercise for fitness. Running up and down stairs or standing all day at a job seems to be physical exertion. It is exertion, of course, but such limited activities do not use the lungs fully or provide adequate stimulation for the heart to produce a training effect. If normal, day to day activities leave you fatigued at the end of the day, then you need the increased energy and vitality that comes from regular physical exertion. You must use energy to gain energy. In other words, regular stimulation of the total body through vigorous exercise produces increased strength and endurance, characteristics associated with good health.

These attributes cannot be acquired from sitting at a desk all day, watching sports on television, riding elevators, or snacking.Now that inactivity has been recognized as a threat to physiological well being, some authorities have suggested that exercise may be the cheapest preventative medicine in the world. Researchers in medicine, nutrition, psychology, physiology, and physical education agree that exercise, properly performed, is necessary for maintaining functional physical fitness. No responsible health educator will ever suggest that exercise is a panacea. But it is clear that, just as we need food, rest and sleep, we need daily exercise for the maintenance of our physical capacities. Physical fitness is not an end in itself but a means to an end. It provides the basis for optimal physiological health and gives us the capacity to enjoy a full life.

Exercise is good for you. Okay, you knew that! Try this: call exercise a "positive do!" Rather than telling yourself, "Don’t eat this or that" or "Don’t smoke", "Don’t get excited", "Don’t worry", say, "DO exercise!" Think of exercise as something fun that you can integrate into your lifestyle in a fairly painless manner. It is a physiological fact that people who exercise tend to not smoke or if they do they find they smoke less, they are more conscious about what they eat and they have an easier time relaxing and sleeping better. Can’t argue with those results! Think of these facts as the positive side effects of exercise.

Exercise offsets the ill effects of sedentary living in our modern technological society and ensures that you are living at your potential. Strive to make exercise an integral but fun part of your lifestyle.

• Choose Style

Practice gentle forms of yoga, such as Kripalu, Viniyoga, or Integral Yoga. Bikram, Ashtanga and Power Yoga are generally too vigorous for beginners and inflexible people.

• Find Your Instructor

Find an instructor who is experienced, certified and cares about your physical imitations. He or she can modify the pace or perhaps offer alternative poses to meet your specific needs. In addition, never let an instructor try to force your body into any pose. Practice the "hands off" approach!

• Warm Up

Get in ten minutes of warming up with easy movements to increase circulation, lubricate joins and ready your body to stretch. You want the poses to progress from simple to more difficult.

• Poses to Avoid

The plow, full shoulder stand, headstand and full lotus. These poses can place tremendous strain on joints and disks.

• Protect Your Back

Keep your knees slightly bent and hinge from your hips when you bend forward from any standing position. For arching backwards, concentrate on opening the front of the body by lengthening from the navel to the sternum. Be careful not to over-arch your lower back, as this will compress the lumbar disks.

• Protect Your Knees

Never lock your knees when in a standing posture. If you feel any strain while doing sitting or kneeling postures, place a cushion or folded blanket under your bottom.

• Your Neck

Be sure you keep your neck in alignment with the rest of your spine at all times, especially when arching backwards. Be careful not to allow your neck to drop back or down.

Enjoy your yoga practice and you are sure to reap the rewards, you will know when you are ready to take it a step further or perhaps you will be happy right where you are at. Let your body be your guide. Get to know it and its injury-prone areas and back off from any movements that causes pain or cramping. And above all, never compare yourself to others!

Following is the number system to use:

    * 3 means very likely
    * 2 means somewhat likely
    * 1 means somewhat unlikely
    * 0 means very unlikely

You have to honestly answer questions, How likely are you to say?

    * I cannot find time to add physical activity to my already busy schedule.
    * I do not exercise much, because my family and friends do not enjoy active things.
    * After work, I am too tired to get any exercise.
    * I have considered getting more exercise, but cannot seem to start.
    * As I age, exercising seems riskier.
    * I would exercise more, if I ever could master a sport.
    * I don’t have easy access to jogging trails, swimming pools, bike paths, etc.
    * Physical activity takes too much time from other commitments – work, family, etc.
    * I am embarrassed about how I would look exercising with others.
    * I am too short on sleep to get up early or stay up later to exercise.
    * It is easier to find excuses not to exercise than to actually do it.
    * I know people who have hurt themselves overdoing exercise.
    * I cannot imagine learning a new sport at my age.
    * Taking a class, joining a club or buying the right equipment is too expensive.
    * I do not have enough free time during the day to include exercise.
    * Social activities with friends or family do not usually include physical activity.
    * I am too tired during the week and need weekends to catch up on my rest.
    * I would like to get more exercise, but cannot seem to follow through and stick to it.
    * I am afraid I will injure myself or have a heart attack.
    * I am not good enough at any physical activity to enjoy it.
    * If we had exercise facilities and showers at work, I might exercise.

To score yourself:

Place the number you selected in the corresponding numbered space provided (the number for statement one on line one, etc.). Add the three scores across each line. Any score of five or greater identifies an important barrier to face and overcome. Example: In line one we have 1 plus 9 plus 15 equals: Lack of time. Take the number you choose for question one, plus the number you choose for question 9 and 15, add the three numbers together. If they equal five or greater, your excuse is lack of time.

Questions:

• 1 plus 9 plus 15 equals: Lack of time
• 2 plus 9 plus 16 equals: Social influence
• 3 plus 10 plus 17 equals: Lack of energy
• 4 plus 11 plus 18 equals: Lack of willpower
• 5 plus 12 plus 19 equals: Fear of injury
• 6 plus 13 plus 20 equals: Lack of skill
• 7 plus 15 plus 21 equals: Lack of resources

Which kind of situation are you ?  In any case, we should strive for our health.

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The standing, weight-bearing exercises are more difficult because you are using gravity and balancing. This forces you to stabilize your torso. In addition, it is important to note when doing weight-bearing exercises, leave at least one day between exercise sessions. This gives the muscle tissue a chance to recover.

Squats and lunges are the two best exercises for the legs. They work every part of the leg. You can do lunges by stepping either backward or forward — or both! Some feel stepping backward allows one to keep better form. Do whichever feels most comfortable to you.

Isotonic exercise is a very popular form of muscle strengthening. Isotonic exercise can be carried out either with:
 * Free weights — dumbbells
 * Barbells; or fixed equipment — e.g., the Nautilus
In both forms exercises are carried out against a fixed resistance.

As each muscle moves through its complete range, isotonic contraction creates tension with maximum effort at the beginning and end of each exercise.
Advantages of isotonic training:
  * Relatively inexpensive
  * Broad range of exercises
  * Ability to exercise all major muscle groups

Disadvantages:
  * Uneven force throughout each exercise.
  * Exercises may not fully strengthen each muscle group.

Other great exercises for legs are step-ups. For the step-up, you step up onto a platform while holding weights. Step-ups work the quadriceps, the front of the thigh and gluteus maximus (the butt). Flexibility exercises are also excellent for the legs. They give the leg muscle a nicer looking line. After you have finished a leg workout or between exercises, do a stretching exercise. In addition, yoga is fantastic for stretching and gently strengthening the muscles.

To keep results coming, one needs to vary their exercises every three to four weeks to stimulate the exerciser mentally and give them a boost physically. Such changes could include switching to a new exercise or using more weight and fewer repetitions.
   

For beginners, start with non-weight-bearing exercises on the floor such as leg raises on the floor. Do four to six different exercises, two sets of each exercise and 10 to 12 repetitions per set. You may then progress to weight-bearing exercises standing up. When you are more advanced, do five to ten exercises, three to five sets of each exercise and 12 to 20 repetitions. As you gain strength, you can add more weight.

The following exercises are ideal for both beginners and veterans. Simply adapt the workout to your needs. Perform each exercise the appropriate number of reps for desired effect without rests. After the lunge, sissy squat and lying adductor raise exercises are complete, rest 30 seconds. Repeat the supersets two more times with a 30-second rest between.

Lunge — Begin by grasping two dumbbells and allow them to hang down by your sides. Take a long stride forward with your right leg and raise your left heel so your left foot is on its toes. Keeping your shoulders back and chin up, slowly lower your body by flexing your right knee and hip, continuing your descent until your left knee is almost in contact with the floor. Reverse direction by forcibly extending the right hip and knee until you return to the start position. After performing the desired number of reps, repeat the process on your left leg.

Sissy Squat — Begin by taking a shoulder-width stance. Grasp an incline bench with one hand and rise onto your toes. In one motion, slowly slant your torso back, bend your knees and lower your body downward. Thrust your knees forward as you descend and lean back until your torso is almost parallel with the floor. Then, reverse direction and rise upward until you reach the starting position.

Lying Adductor Raise — Begin by lying down on your right side. Bring your left leg over your right leg, keeping it bent at a 90-degree angle with your left foot planted firmly on the floor. Keeping your right leg straight, slowly raise it as high as possible. Contract your inner thigh and return to the start position. After finishing the desired number of repetitions, turn over and repeat the process on your left. For added intensity, strap on ankle weights.