• Provides a way to share an activity with family and friends.

• Establishes good heart-healthy habits in children and counters the conditions (obesity, high blood pressure, poor cholesterol levels, poor lifestyle habits and more) that lead to heart attack and stroke later in life.

• In mature people, it helps delay or prevent chronic illnesses and diseases associated with aging and maintains quality of life and independence longer.

Study after study is coming out demonstrating the benefits of exercise or the consequences of not exercising, with titles like:

• Obese Children Show Early Signs of Heart Disease

• How Exercise Lowers Cardiovascular Risk

• Exercise Improves Thinking, Reduces Diabetes In Overweight Children

• Aerobic Exercise is Best Fitness Program

• Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle

• Fitness in Young Adulthood Protects Heart Health in Middle Age

• Aerobic Exercise Helps Maintain Muscle In Elderly

And many more – some others have been shared in this column during the past.

For those that keep coming up with excuses, put your energy were your excuses are. I invite you to find one credible study that indicates that exercise in moderation is not good for you. Share the study with me. I do not think you will find a credible study that can come to that conclusion.

If you think you are too old, fat, out of shape, uncoordinated or unhealthy, there are studies that indicate exercise can improve your quality of life. Certainly you may consult with your personal physician, and I am certain you will need to start easy and work your way into a program. However, every day you wait is another day lost to not improve yourself and your quality of life. What have you got to lose?