“You only live once; but if you do it right, once is enough.” ~Mae West   The other day, I saw a bit of a clip from a video of the Stones’ last world tour. Mick Jagger was prancing round the stage like an eighteen year-old. It was a bit depressing. Why can’t I do that still? I used to be a demon dancer. Well, I thought I was at the time, like teenagers do. I don’t feel like a demon dancer now. I really ought to get some more exercise. Do you feel like that? That you ought to exercise, but you can’t really get up the steam to do it? That somehow, it’s all too much hassle, even though we all know how important it is? “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~Jim Rohn I’m always looking for some way of doing exercise that I enjoy and will stick with. Are you like me? You’ve tried—not just tried; you’ve tried everything? But it doesn’t work out. I took up swimming before work. You have to wear your work clothes and change in and out of them. Your hair gets wet and takes ages to dry. If you’re unlucky, you drop your suit jacket on the muddy changing room floor. So, you go to work with a jacket with a dirty stain on it. Plus, you smell of chlorine all day and get plantar warts. When I was well into the corporate life, I went to a gym, but that wasn’t much fun. I was always tired, even before the extra journey to get there. There are all those incomprehensible machines to make you do unnatural things. It’s boring, nobody talks to anyone else, and the changing rooms smell horrible. I took up running. That was better, although mostly still nobody to talk to. At least it was outside in the fresh air. I even ran to work sometimes, although you have all the shower and change of clothes difficulties at work then. I did a few fun runs and that was a bit of a laugh—but I got quite fit! Then I had a small accident and suddenly running wasn’t a good idea any more. Bad for the back, bad for the knees. Since then I’ve been sure to keep on walking. Every day. But it’s rather boring, doing the same walks over and over again. In the town, there’s all that pollution to deal with too. And it isn’t any fun at all when it’s raining. No wonder people don’t get enough exercise—it’s all too difficult in today’s world. Here I am, still not that fit and getting a bit less fit as each year goes by. Making the same old New Year’s resolutions. The Science of Exercise and a Bit of Motivation I came across an article about how scientists had determined the best exercise for a long and active life. Yeah, I want [...]