What's all the fuss?
It seems that exercise is big business. I mean BIG business. Nearly everywhere you look these days, your senses are assaulted by hype for some exercise book or magazine. There are records and cassette tapes on the market and they are sold as aids to exercisers. You can exercise in the intimacy of your own home to the instructions and examples of television personalities. You are told that if you buy memberships in health clubs that you will look and feel better because of exercise programs and equipment available at those facilities. I always think, when faced with health club advertisements, ''Gee, I can be pretty and chic like the lady on TV if I go to her exercise club.''
When I remove myself from the multisensory impingement upon my being and I return to reality, I'm left with the nagging question of ''What's all the fuss about anyway?''
There is currently a great exercise fad which seems to border on national obsession. I mean, why are so many people spending so much money on exercise tools and information, while talking about it incessantly? From what I learn from the news media, I conclude that exercise club memberships are bloated (no pun intended) and group exercisemania is extremely popular.
Now, before readers begin to yell at me, let me hasten to add that I love to exercise and am self-admittedly addicted to walking in the beautiful outdoors. In spite of this, I'm toying with the idea of writing a book to be tentatively entitled ''How to Get More Than Enough Physical Exercise by Simply Coping with Daily Demands of Living.''
Listen, only yesterday I carried 10 pounds of oranges while I walked a mile from the neighborhood health food store. That doesn't take into account the mile I walked TO the store to get the oranges. I ran up and down the stairs inside my home dozens of times, walked a half mile each way (different trip and different direction from two other walks of the day) to visit my mother.
When I teach at a local university five days a week, I avoid parking hassles by parking a mile from my office. Missing the spectacle of bedlam and madness of parking lot combat between vying cars is no small accomplishment. Besides, it gives me two more miles of exercise. Between carrying laundry, polishing silver, washing a car, climbing stairs of buildings rather than riding elevators, what person doesn't get plenty of exercise? If all that doesn't satisfy, try rearranging furniture in the rooms of your home. Afterward, plant a garden and wash all of your house windows. Then, SIT DOWN AND REST!
