People have a lot of excuses to not exercise. Some are legitimate; most are not. I think that, sometimes, people use excuses as a mental trick to rationalize the real reason why they don't exercise. And that real reason is almost universally the same: they hate to exercise. Or, at least, they think they do. All the other secondary excuses (you know the ones) are just the frosting we put on the cake to feel less guilty. The "cake" is the perception and belief that exercise has to be a miserable, inconvenient experience.

Sometimes the excuses are based on the "exercise myths." These are perceptions about exercise that people hear from friends or, giving the myth even more validity, hear on radio or television. And there are just plain not true! But, their mythology has been perpetuated through the years and, when that happens as with anything, it starts being accepted as true. No questioning. No personal experiences. If you hear something enough times from enough people, it must be true. Right?

No. Exercise has it's own mythology. These myths are used by people to justify not exercising and the turth be damned! It allows them to rationalize not doing something they also know they should be doing - i.e. exercising. So, I guess there are two levelso of excuses for not exercising. Level one is the "personal excuses" - the "I'm too busy," "I'm too tired," "I have back pain," etc. Level two are the "exercise mythologies." These include the following:

• Women who lift weights will get bulky muscles - Ninety-nine percent of women do not have the genetic disposition to develop large, bulky muscles and they don't have enough of the androgenic (male) hormone, testosterone, needed for the development of muscle bulk. While steroids and other artificial means may cause some women to "bulk up," resistance or strength training will not. What resistance (anaerobic) training with weights, toning cords or bands, or plain old push-ups and sit-ups will do is to add lean muscle mass to your body. And every pound of muscle added to your body increases your BMR and improves your chances of avoiding weight gain.

• It has to hurt to be effective (i.e. "No pain, no gain") - It is many people's belief that, in order to accomplish the goal of improving your shape or losing weight, you have to do exercise that makes your muscles sore. If you wake up the next day and you don't have pain in every muscle and every joint, you didn't exercise hard enough. The truth is that exercising to the point of pain does more harm than good. A reasonable exercise program might be uncomfortable and have a few minor aches and soreness the first few days, but exercise should not be painful. It should put a reasonable demand on the heart and lungs and give your muscles a burst of increased activity to improve their function, without causing significant discomfort or increasing the risk of injury. If you start reasonably with exercise sessions that "seem easy" rather than trying to over exercise, you will gradually glide into increasing your exercise sessions without the pain. I recommend "No pain; use your brain!" for an approach to exercise.

• Exercise requires a too much time - Any amount of increased activity (OK, so call it "exercise" if you must) contributes to better overall health, stamina and physical and psychological well-being. The CDC recommends an accumulated total of at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day to maintain health and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Individuals desiring to lose weight and keep it off are advised to accumulate 60 minutes of physical activity each day. That's the bad news. Now, the good news lies in the word "accumulated." It doesn't say you have to do 30 or 60 minutes of exercise in one session. The guidelines state you should accumulate your minutes of activity which, translated, means that 3 ten minute sessions is just as effective as one 30 minute session to maintain your weight. To lose weight, you could do 6 ten minute sessions or 4 fifteen minute sessions to get to your hour accumulated. Don't believe the myth! Exercise does not require you to drastically shift your schedule and block out huge chunks of time to be effective. So, stop using that for an excuse and spend the mental energy figuring out where in your busy day you can slip in 5 or 10 minutes of activity.

• There's a magic bullet or quick fix out there somewhere - If you are waiting around for a "exercise-in-pill" substitute for good old sweat, you have an awfully long wait ahead for yourself. While there are pharmaceutical companies researching the area of weight control drugs, nothing that will give you the benefits of exercise without the effort is likely to come out in my (and probably your) lifetime. But could you imagine the market that company would have if they could actually develop such a magical pill? It's all dreaming and you should accept this fact: there is no quick fix and no easy solution. Many nutritional supplements are marketed using deceptive, misleading or fraudulent advertising. We have discussed that elsewhere. Don't buy into the hype! Nothing - let me repeat this for emphasis - nothing in a pill, drink, or tea is going to change your metabolism so that you do not have to exercise to achieve optimal health. Even in the age of disease cures and advancements happening regularly and a steady march of scientific progress is going to chagne this irrefutable fact: a well-balanced diet and regular exercise is the safest and most effective way to achieve weight loss or performance goals.

Stop using excuses and start moving. It's a lifestyle not a chore. The benefits are clear and the excuses are much too murky. Quit trying to convince yourself that you can't and start imagining ways you can become more active.

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Albright Bariatric Clinic