Recently, I discussed the value of investing in yourself - putting time and money into improving you, not building assets. Today, we’ll look at one area of investing in yourself as part of an ongoing series on the topic, spread out once per weekday over two weeks. If you’d like to review all the entries, look at the investing in yourself subcategory.

The biggest cost in my grandmother’s life right now is health care. She spent most of her life not getting adequate exercise - most of her jobs involved clerical work and she was always more content to be standing in the kitchen making lasagna than getting out of the house and going for a brisk walk.

Whenever I see her gasping for oxygen, I’m reminded that I could easily be in the same spot. Right now, I have the advantage of youth, but that advantage is slowly slipping away. I don’t have any trouble doing almost any activity I want to do right now, but I do get out of breath when I’m unloading heavy boxes or moving furniture or other tasks that should be relatively easy. Even now, I can see some slippage - I could play basketball for an hour without scarcely pausing for a breath, but not anymore - a ten minute pickup game leaves me wheezing.

My health and vitality are things that I don’t want to slip away from me as I age, so over the last year I’ve been working hard to invest in myself by getting better exercise - and I’ve found that it’s one of the best investments of time and money that I could possibly make. I feel better each day. I have more energy to do the things that I want to do and need to do - like keep The Simple Dollar updated, for example. Even better, I know that I’m adding years to my life - and years of enjoyable life later on when I’m free from the shackles of the day-to-day work grind.

I’m not talking about peak performance or getting into killer shape. I’m talking about maintaining a basic level of physical fitness that can extend your life, reduce your health care costs, engage in more strenuous activities now, and enjoy reasonable health during your later years. Plus, it can help you to both look better and feel better every day, improving both your outward appearance and your inward sensibilities. Here are some basic steps to take.

Talk to your doctor

Before you begin any significant increase in your regular activity level, it’s useful to schedule a routine checkup with your doctor, just in case. If you’re suffering from an ailment that might hinder significant exercise, or you have some sort of condition that needs to be noted before you start, a doctor’s visit before you start upgrading your activity level can be a real help.

Be sure to lay out your plans and any concerns you have with your doctor. If the doctor is worth their salt, your concerns will be listened to and addressed. You’ll likely also get some advice on what you can realistically expect and what your safe limits should be - it’s always useful to get your heart racing just a little, but for many people (especially those out of shape), suddenly jumping into triathlon-style training wouldn’t be good at all.

I’ll admit to being partial - my physician is a wonderful person who genuinely cares about the health of everyone who visits him. I’ve never been as pleased with a doctor in my life as I am with my current physician.

Learn how to stretch and do basic yoga

The most basic exercise that most people should do isn’t even something that people think of as exercise. Stretching is a major piece of the foundation of health for a number of reasons: it improves flexibility, it makes other exercises easier, it improves range of movement, it reduces muscle tension, it improves circulation (which directly relates to improved energy levels), and it improves muscular coordination. Better yet, all stretching costs is a bit of time - you don’t need any equipment (other than maybe a clock) to do it. Here’s how to get started.

Start off with some basic stretches. A few times a week, run through a small routine of simple stretches just to see how it works for you - you can do it in about fifteen minutes. Here’s an excellent battery of very basic stretches. What I’ve found with stretching in my own experiences is that the first time is sort of painful, the next few times after that leave you feeling incredible, and the times after that just feel good. I’ve also found that playing some quiet music while doing this helps - something in the background that’s soothing but not distracting.

Move on to some simple yoga poses. Once you’ve done several sessions of stretching, you’ll find that your flexibility has increased quite a bit and your energy level is higher, too. That’s the perfect time to move on to yoga, which is basically a mix of stretching, isometric exercises (ones where you effectively use your own body as a weight), and meditation. Try out some of the basic positions - I’ve never really done anything that isn’t listed on this page.

I often incorporate stretches and yoga into my meditation routines. I use the time I’m stretching to relax my mind as well and I usually finish not only feeling physically refreshed, but mentally refreshed, too. For many people, spending twenty minutes stretching and meditating seems like a poor use of time, but when it raises your energy level and mental level so much, it’s well worth it.

Walk

Walking is another simple exercise that can be used to build up basic health. Even better, you can get a lot of this exercise in your daily life and supplement it with dedicated time for walking each day. You can combine a short walking period (fifteen minutes) with little moves like parking on the far end of the parking lot in order to slowly improve your muscular and cardiovascular health without turning it into a major distraction. Here are some tips for getting started.

Get good running shoes and a pedometer. One major challenge when you begin to increase your levels of walking is sore feet - most shoes simply aren’t designed for a lot of walking. Try getting a pair of shoes intended for walking/running and using them when you’re going to be doing it for exercise. Even more important: get a pedometer so you can count your steps. I personally use the Omron HJ-720 because it stores my daily stepping totals and I can easily extract it to my PC for easy record keeping.

Get a baseline before you do anything else. When you get a pedometer, don’t immediately start in on the exercising. Just keep it in your pocket for a week and do things normally so that you can get a baseline of how many steps you take in an average day. This will help guide you as you define what your goals for walking will be and also make sure that you don’t set an unrealistic goal right off the bat.

Use that baseline as your first daily goal. Take all of those daily counts and use them to define a daily goal. For me, I found success in using the first “even thousand” number above my highest normal day’s walking count to start with. So, if my highest normal day involved 3,800 steps, then I defined a daily goal of 4,000 steps as a minimum. This usually meant that I would have to walk 1,000 steps extra to make sure I broke that goal every single day. Once that became routine (a week or two), I kept upping my goal, with the long-term goal of eventually reaching 10,000 or more steps in a day.

Make a one month commitment

Most people who begin exercise get frustrated when they don’t see any benefits after a week of consistent work and they abandon their plans (or at least begin slacking off). A week is far too short of a time to see any noticeable changes, and even after a month your biggest changes will be in how you feel, not in your appearance. When you start, make a minimum of a one month commitment to exercising or else you’re just wasting time.

Start at the beginning of the month. This will help you keep your timeframe in mind throughout the month - you can clearly see the beginning date and the ending date. It’s a nice, constrained time for you to get started on things.

Define an exercise schedule. Literally list the activities you’ll do each day - and follow it. Mix it up, too, so that it doesn’t get boring. I usually stretch and do yoga every day, but I try doing a variety of things throughout a given week so that it doesn’t get too repetitious.

Take measurements only at the start and the end of the month. If you’re trying to lose weight via exercise or you’re gauging things by how out of breath you are after running around the block, do this measurement once at the start of the month, then don’t do it again until the end of the month. This gives you time to build up some real progress so that you can clearly see that things are working well.

Set clear and concrete goals based on the exercise

When I first attempted to shed some pounds, I set a target weight as a goal - and I was continually frustrated as I repeatedly failed to reach the goal. It took me a while to realize that I was setting the wrong goals. I was setting goals that were only partially controlled by exercising and expecting that exercising would do the trick. A much better approach is to realize that exercise will eventually lead you towards the level of fitness or the target weight you want to reach as long as you’re consistent with it. Here are some tips.

Use specific exercise numbers as goals. Instead of saying, “I want to lose 40 pounds,” instead say, “I want to walk 10,000 steps a day for the next three months.” That way, it’s just a matter of putting forth the effort to exercise, not a question of whether your body chemistry will help you along the way.

Always look upward. Be sure to set goals that aren’t easy for you to reach. If your current exercise seems very easy, try changing your goals around to increase the challenge level. If you can easily walk 10,000 steps in a day, add to that step total or make some of the steps into running or jogging steps.

Celebrate your successes with others. When you achieve a challenging goal, don’t be afraid to be very happy about it. Tell others about your successes and you’ll find that they’ll quickly become a great support for you as you challenge yourself to get into better shape.

Try other exercises

Although walking and stretching are two easy ways to start getting in better shape, there are lots of things you can do without ponying up the expense of a gym membership or expensive equipment - just a time investment. I personally use the exercise ladder as a way to keep motivated. It gives clear directions on what kinds of exercises to do, how many of them to do, and how to tell when you’re ready to keep increasing your exercise level, plus it directly integrates goals into the program. Here are some general tips for expanding your exercise regimen.

Start off below what you think you can handle. That way, you don’t over-exert yourself or accidentally strain something by doing too much at first. Once you’ve got the hang of it, slowly ease upwards until you find a level that’s challenging for you - and then work at that level.

A lot of repetitions with light weights or exercises are better than a few repetitions with heavy weights or exercises. The point is to exercise your muscles, and repetition is the real key to victory. If you’re a beginner, you’ll get more overall benefit out of five sets of ten reps with a ten pound weight than one set of ten reps with a fifty pound weight - it might not maximize your muscle growth, but it will help with overall aerobic health and have a vastly lower chance of muscle damage.

Is a gym membership necessary? For some people, the camaraderie of others exercising or the availability of coaching can really make the difference, but don’t jump in and sign up for a long-term plan. Pay for the shortest plan you can get (even if it’s pricier) and see whether it’s of real use to you. If it is, keep going and sign up for a longer stint - if it’s not, you’ve minimized your expenses.

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我的祖母目前生活中的最大開支是健康護理。她在一生中的大部分時間里都缺乏足夠的鍛煉——她大部分工作都是文員，而且比起走到戶外輕松的散步，她總是喜歡站在廚房里做意大利寬面。
每當(dāng)我看著她困難的吸入氧氣，我就不住提醒自己，我也可能很容易落到那樣的處境�，F(xiàn)在，我有著年輕的優(yōu)勢，但是那樣的優(yōu)勢正在慢慢的溜走。我現(xiàn)在可以沒有困難的做幾乎任何我想做的動作。但當(dāng)我做卸下重箱子，移動家具或其他動作時就會累得上氣不接下氣，而這本該更容易一點。即使是現(xiàn)在，我也可以看到這種慢慢的改變——我曾經(jīng)可以幾乎不用歇一口氣的打滿一個小時籃球，但現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不行了——10分鐘的小活動也能讓我氣喘吁吁。

我不希望我的健康和活力在我年老時離我而去，所以去年我費了很多功夫在通過鍛煉身體來投資自身上面——而我已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)，那是我所能做的最好的時間和金錢的投資，讓我每天都會覺得更好，讓我有更多的精力去做我想做和應(yīng)該做的事情——比如保持The Simple Dollar 的更新。更好的是，我知道我正在給自己的人生增加時間——而且是在脫離了日復(fù)一日工作桎梏后的值得享受的人生。

頂峰狀態(tài)和達到殺手級的外形不是我討論的話題。我說的是保持基本水準的健康身體，從而延長壽命，減少健康護理支出，在當(dāng)下從事那些需要更加奮力拼搏的事業(yè)，在將來晚年時可以享受健康的生活。此外，這樣還可以幫助你每天都看上去更好，并且感覺更好，同時改善你外在的形象和你內(nèi)在的敏銳感覺。以下是一些可以采取的基本步驟。

與你的醫(yī)生交談

在你開始顯著增加日�；顒恿恐�前，和你的醫(yī)生一起安排一次例行體檢將會很有幫助。如果你正患某種要求避免大運動量的疾病，或者你有某些癥狀在開始運動前需要注意，那在你開始提升運動量之前的拜訪醫(yī)生將真的會很有用。

務(wù)必向你的醫(yī)生說出你的計劃和顧慮。如果他是個稱職的醫(yī)生，你的顧慮將會被認真聽取和討論。你也很可能獲得一些有關(guān)你能夠?qū)嶋H期待什么和你的安全極限在哪里的建議——讓你的心臟跑塊一點總是很有好處的，但是對于很多人來說（貼別是那些超重的人），突然開始鐵人三項類型的訓(xùn)練根本就不會有任何益處。
我承認自己有點偏愛——我的內(nèi)科醫(yī)生是個棒極了的家伙，他發(fā)自內(nèi)心的關(guān)心每個到他那的人的健康。我對自己一生中遇到的其他醫(yī)生從來沒有像現(xiàn)在對這位內(nèi)科醫(yī)生那樣的滿意。

學(xué)會伸展運動和做基本的瑜伽訓(xùn)練

絕大多數(shù)人需要做的最基本鍛煉甚至不是那些人們通常認為是鍛煉的活動。基于以下這些理由，伸展運動是健康基礎(chǔ)的一個主要組成部分：它可以改善柔韌性，使進行其他鍛煉活動變得更加容易，擴展動作的范圍，緩解肌肉的緊張，促進循環(huán)（從而直接提升了能量等級（？）），改善肌肉功能的協(xié)調(diào)性。更好的是，所有的伸展運動只需要花費一點時間——你不需要任何裝備（也許一只鐘除外）來配合。接下來就說說如何開始的方法。

從一些基本的伸展運動開始。每個禮拜幾次，按照一個簡單的伸展運動套路來做，看看這樣如何對你產(chǎn)生效果——你能夠在15分鐘內(nèi)完成它。這里有一個非常好的基礎(chǔ)伸展運動教程（超鏈接）。我透過自己進行伸展運動的經(jīng)驗已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)，第一次做的時候會有點疼痛，接下去的幾次會讓你覺得不可思議，再接下來的幾次就是舒服的感覺。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，在做伸展運動的同時放一些輕音樂很有幫助——就是那種舒緩而不會令人分心的背景音樂。
然后接下去就可以做做一些簡單的瑜伽姿勢。一旦你做了幾個階段的伸展運動后，你將會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的柔韌性進步了不少，你的能量水平也變得更高。那是開始做瑜伽的最好時機。瑜伽基本上可以看成是伸展運動、冥想和等軸運動（指那類你可以有效的利用你自己的身體重量作為負荷的鍛煉）的混合。試試這些基本的姿勢——我?guī)缀踹�從來沒真正做過那些沒列在這個頁面上的動作。
我經(jīng)常將伸展運動和瑜伽訓(xùn)練和我的冥想程序整合起來。我在進行伸展運動的同時放松心情，這樣我在運動結(jié)束時往往不僅能夠覺得身體煥然一新，而且精神上也是。對許多人來說，花上20分鐘進行伸展運動和冥想看上去不是在很好的運用時間，但是考慮到這樣做會如此有效的提升你的能量水平和心靈水平（？），將是很值得做的。

健步

健步運動是另一個可用來逐步建立基本保健的簡單鍛煉方式，更好的是，你能夠在自己的日常生活中得到很多這樣的鍛煉，也能通過每天專門花時間健步來進行補充。比如，你可以結(jié)合一個較短的健步時間（比如15分鐘）和一些小行動，比如將車停在停車位較遠的一頭，從而慢慢的改善你的肌肉狀況和心血管健康，而又不會把它變成一個大的干擾。這里有一些幫助你開始的小竅門。

找一雙好跑鞋和一個計步器。當(dāng)你開始增加自己的步行量時，一個主要的挑戰(zhàn)就是足部的酸痛——絕大多數(shù)的鞋子都不是為大量的步行而設(shè)計。試著找一雙為了步行和奔跑目的而設(shè)計的鞋子，在你準備去鍛煉的時候使用它們。而更重要的是：準備一個計步器，這樣你就能計算你的步數(shù)。我本人使用的是Omron HJ-720，因為它能夠存儲我每日的走路總步數(shù)，而且我能夠輕松的將數(shù)據(jù)導(dǎo)入電腦中，從而方便的保存記錄。

在你開始實施任何事之前先獲得一個基準。當(dāng)你拿到了一個計步器后，不要立刻將它用在鍛煉上。只要把它放在你的口袋里一周時間，同時就像平時那樣做事，你就能得到你在平常的一天里走多少步的數(shù)字作為基準。這將幫助你確定你健走的目標(biāo)是什么，并且確保你不會馬上定下一個不切實際的目標(biāo)。

把那個基準用作你最初的每日目標(biāo)。記下所有那些每日記錄，利用他們來定義你的每日目標(biāo)。就我自己而言，我發(fā)現(xiàn)使用第一個高于我的最高日常步行記錄數(shù)字的整千位數(shù)作為開始是個很成功的決定。也就是說，如果我的最高日常記錄是 3800步，那我就將至少4000步作為每日的目標(biāo)。這通常意味著我需要多走1000步來確保我每一天都能超過那個目標(biāo)。一旦那個目標(biāo)變得像例行公事（通常是1周到2周后）。我就提高我的目標(biāo)。

定下一個月的約定

當(dāng)開始鍛煉的人在一周的持續(xù)努力后卻看不到任何好處，他們往往會放棄自己的計劃（或者至少開始變得倦�。�。一周時間實在是太短了，以至于不能讓人看到任何值得注意的變化。甚至在一個月之后，你身上的最大變化也只是在你的感覺上，而不是在你的外表。當(dāng)你開始的時候，至少保證堅持一個月的時間，否則你只是在浪費時間。

從月初開始。這樣做有助你在整個月中都把時間表記在腦子里——你能夠清楚的知道開始日期和結(jié)束日期。對于你開始做的事情來說，這是個很合適而且有約束力的時間段.

準備一個鍛煉計劃。書面的把你每天將做的活動列下來——然后執(zhí)行它。也可以打亂次序，這樣就不會變得枯燥。我通常每天都做伸展運動和瑜伽，但是在某一周中我會試著做一系列不同的事情，這樣就不會變成同樣的事反反復(fù)復(fù)。

只在月初和月末檢查成果。如果你是打算通過鍛煉減輕體重或者你是通過在繞著街區(qū)跑了一圈后如何喘息來測量的，最好在月初的時候進行測量，然后直到月末之前別再測。給自己一點時間來達成一些真正的進展，那樣你就能清楚的看到事情正進行的很好。

基于鍛煉本身樹立清楚而可靠的目標(biāo)

在我最早開始減肥的時候，我把希望減少到的體重作為目標(biāo)——當(dāng)我一次又一次的失敗，我感到持續(xù)的挫敗感。我花了一點時間才意識到我設(shè)定了錯誤的目標(biāo)。我設(shè)定的目標(biāo)只是部分受鍛煉的控制，而我卻希望鍛煉就能幫我達成目標(biāo)。更好的方式是認識到，只要你堅持，鍛煉將最終把你帶向苗條身材或者你希望的目標(biāo)體重，這里有一些小竅門。

把確定的鍛煉次數(shù)作為目標(biāo)。說“我要在接下去的3個月中每天走10000步”，而不要說“我要減掉40磅體重”。對前一種方式而言，問題僅僅在于拿出努力來鍛煉，而不依賴于你體內(nèi)的化學(xué)反應(yīng)是否會幫助你抬頭向上看。確保你設(shè)定的目標(biāo)對于自己來說不是那么容易達到的。如果你目前的鍛煉內(nèi)容看起來很簡單，那就試著改變目標(biāo)來增加挑戰(zhàn)性。如果你能夠輕松的每天走上10000步，那就增加總的步數(shù)，或者把部分的步子改為跑步或者跳步。

和其他人一起慶祝你的成功。當(dāng)你達成了一個有挑戰(zhàn)性的目標(biāo)，不要怕對此感到很高興。告訴別人你的成功，你就會發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)你挑戰(zhàn)自己向更好的體型努力時，他們很快會成為你的支持。

嘗試其他鍛煉形式

雖然健步和伸展運動是達到較好體型的兩個簡單方法，但還有許多不需要你花費金錢在健身房會籍和昂貴的健身器材上的方法可以選擇——只需要投資時間。我個人經(jīng)常利用the exercise ladder網(wǎng)站上提供的方法來保持激勵狀態(tài)。那個網(wǎng)站上給出了采取哪種鍛煉方式，做多少運動量，如何確定自己已經(jīng)準備好了提升鍛煉級別的清晰指引，此外，這個網(wǎng)站還還設(shè)法將目標(biāo)直接整合到鍛煉程序中。這里有一些可用于擴展你的鍛煉方式的竅門。

從稍低于你認為自己能夠承受的運動量開始。這樣，你就不會由于在一開始運動太多而導(dǎo)致過度運動，或者意外的扭傷哪個部位。一旦你學(xué)會怎么做了，慢慢的從容的加大運動量，直到你到達一個對你有挑戰(zhàn)性的級別——然后就在那個級別鍛煉。

大量重復(fù)輕負荷重量練習(xí)和鍛煉要好于較少次數(shù)的大負荷重量練習(xí)和鍛煉。要點在于鍛煉你的肌肉，而重復(fù)是成功的真正關(guān)鍵。你會從每組十次的五組十磅重量練習(xí)中得到比每組十次的一組五十磅重量練習(xí)更多的總體好處——這也許不會讓你的肌肉最快速的增長，但會幫助改善你的心肺健康以及極大的降低肌肉受傷的機會。

是否需要一個健身房會籍？對某些人來說，和其他人一起鍛煉的樂趣或者能夠獲得教練指導(dǎo)確實是能夠產(chǎn)生很大的不同，但是別貿(mào)然的注冊一個長期會員資格。買一個你能夠得到的最短的會員期限（即使這樣單價會比較貴），然后看看這樣是否真的對你有用。如果有用，就繼續(xù)下去并注冊一個長一點的會籍期限——如果不是，那你也可以將花費降低到最低。