Rethinking Exercise as a Source of Immediate Rewards

Jane Brody writes an excellent health column because she almost always talks about her own experiences, which makes her a lot easier to relate to. In my opinion, she tends to be far more accurate than many health writers who comment on fads that don’t work. She is absolutely correct about why some people succeed in their exercise program.
I define success as a lifetime of exercise. I see patients every day who are injured due to an aggressive exercise program, which was undertaken to make up for a sedentary period. This plan of attack rarely works. When you don’t go to the gym for three years and then join a 16 week boot camp to get back on track, you easily develop overuse injuries such as tendinitis and patellofemoral syndrome. By far the best plan is to stay on track and not get off.