Time. It seems to be getting away from us these days. So how do we include a practical and productive health and fitness program into our schedule?

Exercise may not be your favorite topic. Mentioning the word may bring to mind memories of sore joints, worthless gym memberships, and useless mail-order gimmicks. It may remind you that your previous exercise program was time consuming and didn’t produce results. You may wonder, “Who needs exercise anyway?”

The answer is, “We all do.” However, there’s a lot of misinformation published about exercise, and it’s rare to find information that clearly explains proper exercise techniques. Overwhelmed and discouraged, many people have decided exercise isn’t for them. Others expend energy and money on programs that aren’t helpful. It’s not about breaking a sweat by throwing weights around, jumping up and down during an aerobics routine, or contorting your body into a pretzel. It’s about trying to discover the least amount of exercise your body requires for optimal results, rather than how much it can withstand.

We’re constantly told we need to be more active. For someone who’s completely sedentary, this is good advice. However, more adults suffer from loss of muscle tissue than too little physical activity. Starting at approximately age 25 and continuing into our senior years, all people lose muscle tissue and strength. Therefore, a primary fitness/health concern should be the loss of muscle tissue as we age. Since the muscular system is the only structure of the body directly affected by exercise and any physical movement, it’s the one system whose improvement will affect all other aspects of body form and function. This includes bone density, cardiovascular efficiency, joint flexibility, body leanness, and many other health issues. According to several noted experts in the field, physical activities such as basketball, tennis, running, and golf do little to halt muscle loss. Only strength training can halt and reverse muscle loss. Strength training is essential to long-term health and maintenance of physical abilities.

The most important variable required to build maximum muscle tissue in minimum time is intensity. Intensity often is referred to as the relative effort expanded during an exercise. The greater the exercise intensity, the greater your results. Low-intensity activities don’t create an incentive for your body to improve. Performing low-intensity activities for longer periods of time or more frequently may lead to over-training and injuries. If your exercise intensity is high, the only thing you’ll regret is the time you wasted training longer and more frequently.

A high-intensity program isn’t easy work and, performed properly, can be the most demanding physical activity you’ll ever experience. However, since your body is a precious gift and your time has enormous value, a high-intensity strength training program gives you the highest rate of return on your fitness investment. TPW