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Make time for exercise for it will greatly enhance your health

• Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. Thomas Jefferson
• Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. Plato
• Exercise is good for your mind, body, and soul. Susie Michelle Cortright
• Wholesome exercise in the free air, under the wide sky, is the best medicine for body and spirit. Sarah Louise Arnold
• Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. Carol Welch
• Exercise, play, move. Stretch, feel, reach, sweat. Skip, dance, hug! Use the body God gave you, don’t let it rot. Terri Guillemets
• We do not stop exercising because we grow old – we grow old because we stop exercising. Kenneth Cooper
• A life without exercise is, simply, a life without vigor. Exercise doesn’t mean hours at the gym, sweating and working until every muscle in your body is sore, but it does mean sometimes making a decision to let other things go for an hour or two so that you can take care of one of the most important elements of your life on this planet: your body. Tom Walsh
• Health and good estate of body are above all gold, and a strong body above infinite wealth. Ecclesiasticus 30:15
• Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live. Jim Rohn
• The tools that allow for optimum health are diet and exercise. Bill Toomey
• Patients should have rest, food, fresh air, and exercise–the quadrangle of health. William Osler
• Health,  Diet,  The body,  Vitality  Being fully alive,  Losing weight,  Well-being,  Energy management

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Exercise prevents the onset of disease and illness…

• Exercise not only helps your immune system fight off simple bacterial and viral infections; it also decreases your chances of developing heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer. The key to the longevity- promoting effects of exercise is maintaining a high degree of exercise tolerance and fitness. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
• Bones are just like muscles. The single best thing you can do to prevent (and reverse) osteoporosis is to start exercising your bones, because a lack of physical exercise is the primary cause of osteoporosis. Mike Anderson
• Exercise should be regarded as tribute to the heart. Gene Tunney
• Illness

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… whereas lack of exercise can make you ill

• When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no “I’ll start tomorrow.” Tomorrow is disease. Terri Guillemets
• Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness. Earl of Derby
• Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. Edward Stanley

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Exercise slows the decline of old age…

• A great number of studies have found that exercise can provide all these benefits and more, even for people who begin late in life. We are learning that much of the physical decline that older people suffer stems not from age but from simple disuse. John Robbins
• Exercise and temperance can preserve something of our early strength even in old age. Cicero
• We do not stop exercising because we grow old – we grow old because we stop exercising. Kenneth Cooper

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… and is likely to prolong your life

• Paffenbarger and his associates tracked their subjects’ health and activity levels for four decades and found that participants death rates fell in direct proportion to the number of calories they burned each week. Almost invariably, the more active they were, the longer they lived. John Robbins
• Aerobic exercise. Vigorous exercise strengthens every part of the brain, as well as what it is connected to the body. If you’re between the ages of eighteen and ninety, exercise is going to lengthen your life. Andrew Newberg
• An adequate physical exercise program requires no more than 3 hours out of 168, only 2 percent of the week’s time. Three hours of life can be gained for every hour spent exercising-a good bargain, no? Walter M. Bortz II

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Exercise even makes you look younger

• Have you ever noticed that those who exercise regularly look younger than those who don’t? Although we have no control over our chronological age, our biological age is within our control. Biological age refers to the time that has passed since body cells last regenerated. When exercised, the body must regenerate its cells more rapidly than when idle. Depending on activity level, six to eight months from now our bodies will have regenerated nearly 100 percent of their tissue at the cellular level. This new tissue will literally be made up of what we eat between now and then. Brendan Brazier
• Youth

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Exercise improves mood and boosts happiness

• I tell people that going for a run is like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin because, like the drugs, exercise elevates these neurotransmitters. It’s a handy metaphor to get the point across, but the deeper explanation is that exercise balances neurotransmitters – along with the rest of the neurochemicals in the brain. And as you’ll see, keeping your brain in balance can change your life. John Raitey
• It is exercise alone that supports the spirits and keeps the mind in vigor. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. Carol Welch
• No one in our society needs to be told that exercise is good for us. Whether you are overweight or have a chronic illness or are a slim couch potato, you’ve probably heard or read this dictum countless times throughout your life. But has anyone told you- indeed, guaranteed you-that regular physical activity will make you happier? I swear by it. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Surveys show, and large-scale randomised interventions confirm, that exercise may well be the most effective instant happiness booster of all activities. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• You’re only one workout away from a good mood.
• Physical activity is an excellent stress-buster and provides other health benefits as well. It also can improve your mood and self image. Jon Wickham
• True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are united. Alexander von Humboldt
• Mood

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Exercise makes you calmer and more resilient to stress

• Michael Craig Miller, M.D., summarizes what scientists have been uncovering for several decades, regular training ‘improves your mood, decreases anxiety, improves sleep and resilience in the face of stress and raises self- esteem.’ Shawn Phillips
• Regular exercise has proven benefits of releasing endorphins, which have a calming effect on the brain and in your body. Richard Carlson
• Get some exercise. If you don’t, you’re missing out on an easy and effective way to become happier, less reactive, and more peaceful. Richard Carlson
• Physical activity is an excellent stress-buster and provides other health benefits as well. It also can improve your mood and self image. Jon Wickham
• Stress management

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Exercise can prevent and treat depression

• Aerobic exercise was just as effective at treating depression as was Zoloft, or as a combination of exercise and Zoloft. Yet exercise is a lot less expensive, usually with no side effects apart from soreness. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• In sedentary older adults, a very low-intensity exercise program (walking or resistance / flexibility training) reduces depression and increases confidence and maintains the improvement for an amazing five years. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Overall, I think of depression as an erosion of connections – in your life as well as between your brain cells. Exercise reestablishes those connections. John Ratey, M.D.
• I want to cement the idea that exercise has a profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health. It is simply one of the best treatments we have for most psychiatric problems. John Ratey M.D.
• If everyone knew that exercise worked as well as Zoloft, I think we could put a real dent in the disease. John Ratey, M.D.
• Exercise itself makes for a ‘pretty good anti- depressant too, equal to drugs or psychotherapy in some studies. Michael Craig Miller, M.D.
• Depression

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Exercise is good for your cognitive abilities and memory…

• It is wonderful how the mind is stirred and quickened into activity by brisk bodily exercise. Pliny the Younger
• The fit kids scored twice as well on academic tests as their unfit peers. John Ratey, M.D.
• A notable experiment in 2007 showed that cognitive flexibility improves after just one thirty- five- minute treadmill session at either 60 percent or 70 percent of maximum heart rate. So if you have an important afternoon brainstorming session scheduled, going for a short, intense run during lunchtime is a smart idea. John Ratey, M.D.
• If you had half an hour of exercise this morning, you’re in the right frame of mind to sit still and focus on this paragraph, and your brain is far more equipped to remember it. John Ratey, M.D.
• The neurons in the brain connect to one another through “leaves” on treelike branches, and exercise causes those branches to grow and bloom with new buds, thus enhancing brain function at a fundamental level. John Ratey, M.D.
• You have the power to change your brain. All you have to do is lace up your running shoes. John Ratey, M.D.
• A strong body makes the mind strong. Thomas Jefferson
• It is remarkable how one’s wits are sharpened by physical exercise. Pliny the Younger
• Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. John F. Kennedy
• The Greeks understood that mind and body must develop in harmonious proportions to produce a creative intelligence. And so did the most brilliant intelligence of our earliest days– Thomas Jefferson–when he said, not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise. If the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, was Secretary of State, and twice President, could give it two hours, our children can give it ten or fifteen minutes. John F. Kennedy
• Memory

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… thanks to factors like increased blood flow

• I can’t say enough about the connection between body and mind; when you stimulate your body, your brain comes alive in ways you can’t simulate in a sedentary position. The brain is an organ, tied integrally to all the other systems in the body, and it’s affected by blood flow, neural transmission, all the processes you undergo when you put your body through its paces. Twyla Tharp
• Aerobic (‘with oxygen’) exercise strengthens your cardiovascular system, improving blood and therefore oxygen flow to your body and brain. Your brain is, on average, less than 3 percent of your body weight, yet it uses more than 30 percent of your body’s oxygen. As you become aerobically fit, you double your capacity to process oxygen. Michael Gelb

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Exercise can positively change patterns in other parts of your life by increasing your will power

• When people start habitually exercising, even as infrequently as once a week, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives, often unknowingly. Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. It’s not completely clear why. But for many people, exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change. “Exercise spills over,” said James Prochaska, a University of Rhode Island researcher. “There’s something about it that makes other good habits easier.” Charles Duhigg
• If you have a tendency toward addictive behavior it’s vital to develop some sort of consistent exercise habit. John Ratey, M.D.
• Exercise turns out to be the closest thing to a wonder drug that self- control scientists have discovered. For starters, the willpower benefits of exercise are immediate. Fifteen minutes on a treadmill reduces cravings, as seen when researchers try to tempt dieters with chocolate and smokers with cigarettes. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
• If you tell yourself that you are too tired or don’t have the time to exercise, start thinking of exercise as something that restores, not drains, your energy and willpower. Kelly McGonigal Ph.D.
• Will power,  Self-control

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Exercise increases confidence

• Really being disciplined about exercise is probably one of the hardest things for most of us, but don’t let yourself sabotage your good intentions by excuses such as you don’t have time, or you think you look lumpy in tights. It is amazing how much difference a fit body makes in how confident and capable we feel. Give your body good food and plenty of replenishing rest. You cannot run (and most of us do, indeed, run) without effective fuel and restorative periods for refueling. You are your body’s only maintenance engineer–it counts on you. Sue Patton Thoele
• Self-confidence

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Exercise burns fat

• Don’t try to lose weight. Take delight in gaining fitness. Alan Cohen
• Losing weight

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If exercise was a drug, everyone would be taking it

• The tremendous value that physical exercise provides to your body is established beyond any reasonable doubt. If there was a drug that provided all the benefits that exercise does, the whole world would be taking it. Walter M. Bortz II
• What if there was a pill that would keep you fit and lean as you aged, while protecting your heart and bones? What if it was as good for your brain as for your body, if it made you stronger, more confident, less susceptible to depression? What if it improved your sleep, mood, and memory and reduced your risk of cancer, all while adding life to your years and years to your life? John Robbins

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Our genes are encoded for exercise

• Despite our technical advances, we’re still trapped in Stone Age bodies and those bodies need to be exercised – just as faithfully as they are fed every day. Mike Anderson
• Even if we followed the most demanding governmental recommendations for exercise and logged thirty minutes of physical activity a day, we’d still be at less than half the energy expenditure for which our genes are encoded. Paleolithic man had to walk five to ten miles on an average day, just to be able to eat. John Ratey, M.D.
• The ancient rhythms of activity ingrained in our DNA translate roughly to the varied intensity of walking, jogging, running, and sprinting. In broad strokes, then, I think the best advice is to follow our ancestors’ routine: walk or jog every day, run a couple of times a week, and then go for the kill every now and then by sprinting. John Ratey, M.D.

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Exercise is an essential part of a balanced life

• Anyone’s life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air, and a happy contented spirit. Lillie Langtry
• Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. Thomas Jefferson
• Balance

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Choose an exercise that you enjoy

• If you want to make exercise easy, just choose a physical activity that you enjoy doing for its own sake. Sean Phillips
• Fitness needs to be perceived as fun and games or we subconsciously avoid it. Alan Thicke

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Walking is a great way to start getting fit

• If you haven’t been active, I think the best way to begin is to start walking. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park at the back of the lot, and go for a stroll around the block at lunchtime. John Ratey, M.D.
• Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise. Carrie Latet
• The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is the best. Thomas Jefferson
• Your body is built for walking. Gary Yanker

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Do 45 minutes of exercise, 5 – 6 times a week

• A little is good, and more is better. The best would be to do some form of aerobic activity six days a week, for forty- five minutes to an hour. Four of those days should be on the longer side, at moderate intensity, and two on the shorter side, at high intensity. John Ratey, M.D.
• Always get at least half an hour of exercise a day, or 45 minutes five times a week. If you’ve had a busy day, even 15 minutes can be beneficial. Try walking for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. I guarantee it will transform your life within a month. Mike Anderson

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Go for consistency over intensity

• It’s WAY better to simply put on your shoes, head out and do a nice, mellow workout CONSISTENTLY then it is to go all gonzo and then never go back. Brian Johnson

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Find opportunities throughout the day to move your body…

• Remember that vigor and vitality is a matter of activity, not necessarily formal exercise. I’m always amazed to see cars driving around and around, looking for the closest space to the health club so they can get on a treadmill and walk three miles! Park the car at the farthest point from the store. Use the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. Carry your groceries, garden, and do other activities that keep you moving. You will add more years to your life and more life to your years. Dan Millman

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… especially if you sit a lot at work

• The greatest opponent of the chair is movement. No matter what you do for a living, think about ways you can bring more movement into your life. If you use the computer, try to take a seven- minute bathroom break every hour or two. On this break, walk around. Walk up and down some stairs. Swing your arms as you walk down the hall. Take fifteen or twenty steps as though you were in a marching band, bringing your knees high up. Go outside and walk around the building’s parking lot or walk around the building or house or block. When it comes to fighting the chair, these little breaks are potent healers. They get us breathing and the blood moving again, which helps keep us energized and in rhythm. Don’t let the chair win. Fight back! Frank Lipman, M.D.
• Your body is an amazingly adaptive machine. Ask it to be stronger and stronger you will be. Challenge it to go further and further you will go. Coax it to be more limber and more limber it will be. Allow it to mould into the seat of a recliner and, you got it, a recliner seat it will become. Stretch it, push it, pull it; your body is like cellular Play- Doh waiting for you to be the sculptor. Shawn Phillips
• The best way to soothe a sore, stiff body is to get it moving. Frank Lipman, M.D.

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Make time for exercise

• You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. Charles Buxton
• Physical fitness can neither be achieved by wishful thinking nor outright purchase. Joseph Pilates

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Make it into an ingrained habit

• Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. Jim Ryun
• The hardest thing about exercise is to start doing it. Once you are doing exercise regularly, the hardest thing is to stop it. Erin Gray
• Workouts are like brushing my teeth; I don’t think about them, I just do them. The decision has already been made. Patti Sue Plumer
• Habit

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Like everything, don’t overdo your exercise routine

• Continuous exercise can wear you down and wear you out. What once was a passion has now become just a chore that you dread. Helen M. Ryan
• Excess

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Do exercise for the right reason

• I see exercise taking this perverted detour. The original intention of exercise was to heal and maintain health. Now I see it as having nothing to do with health. I see most exercises based on looking good. They actually make you less healthy. You overdevelop the obvious muscles. You take drugs to enhance that. You ignore the rest, and you become more out of balance. Bryan Kest
• Exercise should be about rewarding the body with endorphins and strength, not about punishing your body for what you’ve eaten.

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Exercise your mind and heart too, not just your body

• True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united. Humboldt
• You must also exercise your heart: Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. Seneca
• The mind needs exercise as much as the body does. John Morgan
• Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise. Thomas Jefferson
• The country would be far better if the population were half as interested in keeping their minds in as good condition as they tried to keep their bodies. John Saul
• To resist the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart. And to keep these in parallel vigor one must exercise, study, and love. Charles-Victor de Bonstettin
• Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort. Charles Dickens
• It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. René Descartes
• The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. Carl Sagan
• Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. John Quincy Adams
• Take your mind out every now and then and dance on it. It is getting all caked up. Mark Twain
• Our minds are lazier than our bodies. Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld
• The heart,  The mind

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Mental exercise grows brain circuitry

• Researchers believe that vigorous mental exercise literally grows brain circuitry. Furthermore, the process does not diminish with age. If this is true, exercising your mental capacities should keep you as young and vital as exercising your body can. Stephen Covey
• Ideas to exercise your brain: Solve puzzles. Write poetry. Satisfy your curiosity. Read about things that interest you. Visit museums. Take up a stimulating hobby.

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Types of exercise

• Boxing is a great exercise… as long as you can yell ‘cut’ whenever you want to. Sylvester Stallone
• Football: A game in which a handful of men run around for two hours watched by millions of people who could really use the exercise.
• Golf is an exercise in Scottish pointlessness for people who are no longer able to throw telephone poles at each other. Florence King
• Golf is essentially an exercise in masochism conducted out of doors. Paul O’Neil
• I ran three miles today… finally I said, ‘Lady take your ‘purse.’ Emo Phillips
• I go running when I have to – like when the ice cream truck is going 60, or I need a lift to the bakery. Wendy Liebman
• Sex without love is merely healthy exercise. Robert Heinlein
• Squash – that’s not exercise, it’s flagellation. Noel Coward
• The biggest liar in the world is the golfer who claims that he plays the game merely for exercise. Tommy Bolt

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Aerobics

• Aerobics is a series of strenuous exercises which help convert fats, sugars, and starches into aches, pains, and cramps. Jerry Smith
• The word aerobics comes from two Greek words: aero, meaning “ability to,” and bics, meaning “withstand tremendous boredom. Dave Barry
• The word ‘aerobics’ came about when the gym instructors got together and said: if we’re going to charge $10 an hour, we can’t call it “jumping up and down.” Rita Rudner

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Exercise and the body

• I really don’t think I need buns of steel. I’d be happy with buns of cinnamon. Ellen DeGeneres
• I’m in shape. Round is a shape isn’t it?
• A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise. A. Milne
• Fitness – If it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body. Cher
• I don’t have a beer gut, I have a protective covering for my rock hard abs.
• I’m in good shape. That shape is round. Jarod Kintz

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Not in favour of exercise

• I believe that every human has a finite amount of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises. Neil Armstrong
• Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway.
• A trophy: An award given to those who do not exercise.
• Exercise freaks are the ones putting stress on the health care system. Rush Limbaugh
• Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it I wash my mouth out with chocolate. Charles M. Schulz
• Getting fit is all about mind over matter. I don’t mind, so it doesn’t matter. Adam Hargreaves
• I am pushing sixty. That is enough exercise for me. Mark Twain
• I get all my exercise from acting as a pallbearer to my friends who exercise. Chauncey Depew
• I’m not into working out; my philosophy: No pain, no pain. Carol Leifer
• My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit. Phyllis Diller
• The only exercise I get is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise. Peter O’Toole
• Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away. Paul Terry
• Whenever I feel like exercise I lie down until the feeling passes. Robert Maynard Hutchins
• To get back my youth I would do anything in the world except take exercise get up early or be respectable. Oscar Wilde

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Exercise and losing weight

• No matter what I do I cannot lose this 18 pounds. I mean I have tried everything short of diet and exercise. Gene Pompa
• People say that losing weight is no walk in the park. When I hear that I think, yeah, that’s the problem. Chris Adams
• Self-delusion is pulling in your stomach when you step on the scales. Paul Sweeney
• Sweat is fat crying.

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More light-hearted quotes

• A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time – pills or stairs. Joan Welsh
• And now for your morning exercises. Ready? Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. And now for the other eyelid.
• Another good reducing exercise consists in placing both hands against the table edge and pushing back. Robert Quillen
• Back in my rummy days I would tremble and shake for hours upon arising; it was the only exercise I got. C. Fields
• Even at home on my stationary exercise bike I have a rear-view mirror. Richard Lewis
• His favorite exercise is climbing tall people. Phyllis Diller
• I burned 60 calories… that should take care of the peanut I ate in 1962. Rita Rudner
• I concentrate on exercises from the waist down since that is the laziest part of a woman’s body. Tina Louise
• I consider conversations with people to be mind exercises, but I don’t want to pull a muscle, so I stretch a lot. That’s why I’m constantly either rolling my eyes or yawning. Jarod Kintz
• I exercise strong self control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast. WC Fields
• I get enough exercise just pushing my luck.
• I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I’m doing. Marsha Doble
• I went to a gym; they offered me free membership for life if I posed for a ‘don’t let this happen to you’ poster. Lenny Clarke
• If it weren’t for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart some of us wouldn’t get any exercise at all. Joey Adams
• If your dog is fat, you’re not getting enough exercise.
• Jumping At Conclusions: Not half as much exercise as digging for facts.
• Knitting: An exercise that gives women something to do when they are talking.
• Most people are so lazy they don’t even exercise good judgement! Alfred E. Neuman
• No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.
• They say the best exercise takes place in the bedroom; I believe it because that’s where I get the most resistance. Jeff Shaw
• Thirty ways to shape up for summer: number one: eat less; number two: exercise more; number three… What was I talking about? I’m so hungry right now. Maria Bamford
• Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.
• You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 today and we don’t know where the hell she is. Ellen Degeneres

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