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开支是健康护理。她在一生中的大部分时间里都缺乏足够的锻炼——她大部分工作都是文员，而且比起走到户外轻松的散步，她总是喜欢站在厨房里做意大利宽面。
每当我看着她困难的吸入氧气，我就不住提醒自己，我也可能很容易落到那样的处境。现在，我有着年轻的优势，但是那样的优势正在慢慢的溜走。我现在可以没有困难的做几乎任何我想做的动作。但当我做卸下重箱子，移动家具或其他动作时就会累得上气不接下气，而这本该更容易一点。即使是现在，我也可以看到这种慢慢的改变——我曾经可以几乎不用歇一口气的打满一个小时篮球，但现在已经不行了——10分钟的小活动也能让我气喘吁吁。

我不希望我的健康和活力在我年老时离我而去，所以去年我费了很多功夫在通过锻炼身体来投资自身上面——而我已经发现，那是我所能做的最好的时间和金钱的投资，让我每天都会觉得更好，让我有更多的精力去做我想做和应该做的事情——比如保持The Simple Dollar 的更新。更好的是，我知道我正在给自己的人生增加时间——而且是在脱离了日复一日工作桎梏后的值得享受的人生。

顶峰状态和达到杀手级的外形不是我讨论的话题。我说的是保持基本水准的健康身体，从而延长寿命，减少健康护理支出，在当下从事那些需要更加奋力拼搏的事业，在将来晚年时可以享受健康的生活。此外，这样还可以帮助你每天都看上去更好，并且感觉更好，同时改善你外在的形象和你内在的敏锐感觉。以下是一些可以采取的基本步骤。

与你的医生交谈

在你开始显著增加日常活动量之前，和你的医生一起安排一次例行体检将会很有帮助。如果你正患某种要求避免大运动量的疾病，或者你有某些症状在开始运动前需要注意，那在你开始提升运动量之前的拜访医生将真的会很有用。

务必向你的医生说出你的计划和顾虑。如果他是个称职的医生，你的顾虑将会被认真听取和讨论。你也很可能获得一些有关你能够实际期待什么和你的安全极限在哪里的建议——让你的心脏跑块一点总是很有好处的，但是对于很多人来说（贴别是那些超重的人），突然开始铁人三项类型的训练根本就不会有任何益处。
我承认自己有点偏爱——我的内科医生是个棒极了的家伙，他发自内心的关心每个到他那的人的健康。我对自己一生中遇到的其他医生从来没有像现在对这位内科医生那样的满意。

学会伸展运动和做基本的瑜伽训练

绝大多数人需要做的最基本锻炼甚至不是那些人们通常认为是锻炼的活动。基于以下这些理由，伸展运动是健康基础的一个主要组成部分：它可以改善柔韧性，使进行其他锻炼活动变得更加容易，扩展动作的范围，缓解肌肉的紧张，促进循环（从而直接提升了能量等级（？）），改善肌肉功能的协调性。更好的是，所有的伸展运动只需要花费一点时间——你不需要任何装备（也许一只钟除外）来配合。接下来就说说如何开始的方法。

从一些基本的伸展运动开始。每个礼拜几次，按照一个简单的伸展运动套路来做，看看这样如何对你产生效果——你能够在15分钟内完成它。这里有一个非常好的基础伸展运动教程（超链接）。我透过自己进行伸展运动的经验已经发现，第一次做的时候会有点疼痛，接下去的几次会让你觉得不可思议，再接下来的几次就是舒服的感觉。我还发现，在做伸展运动的同时放一些轻音乐很有帮助——就是那种舒缓而不会令人分心的背景音乐。
然后接下去就可以做做一些简单的瑜伽姿势。一旦你做了几个阶段的伸展运动后，你将会发现自己的柔韧性进步了不少，你的能量水平也变得更高。那是开始做瑜伽的最好时机。瑜伽基本上可以看成是伸展运动、冥想和等轴运动（指那类你可以有效的利用你自己的身体重量作为负荷的锻炼）的混合。试试这些基本的姿势——我几乎还从来没真正做过那些没列在这个页面上的动作。
我经常将伸展运动和瑜伽训练和我的冥想程序整合起来。我在进行伸展运动的同时放松心情，这样我在运动结束时往往不仅能够觉得身体焕然一新，而且精神上也是。对许多人来说，花上20分钟进行伸展运动和冥想看上去不是在很好的运用时间，但是考虑到这样做会如此有效的提升你的能量水平和心灵水平（？），将是很值得做的。

健步

健步运动是另一个可用来逐步建立基本保健的简单锻炼方式，更好的是，你能够在自己的日常生活中得到很多这样的锻炼，也能通过每天专门花时间健步来进行补充。比如，你可以结合一个较短的健步时间（比如15分钟）和一些小行动，比如将车停在停车位较远的一头，从而慢慢的改善你的肌肉状况和心血管健康，而又不会把它变成一个大的干扰。这里有一些帮助你开始的小窍门。

找一双好跑鞋和一个计步器。当你开始增加自己的步行量时，一个主要的挑战就是足部的酸痛——绝大多数的鞋子都不是为大量的步行而设计。试着找一双为了步行和奔跑目的而设计的鞋子，在你准备去锻炼的时候使用它们。而更重要的是：准备一个计步器，这样你就能计算你的步数。我本人使用的是Omron HJ-720，因为它能够存储我每日的走路总步数，而且我能够轻松的将数据导入电脑中，从而方便的保存记录。

在你开始实施任何事之前先获得一个基准。当你拿到了一个计步器后，不要立刻将它用在锻炼上。只要把它放在你的口袋里一周时间，同时就像平时那样做事，你就能得到你在平常的一天里走多少步的数字作为基准。这将帮助你确定你健走的目标是什么，并且确保你不会马上定下一个不切实际的目标。

把那个基准用作你最初的每日目标。记下所有那些每日记录，利用他们来定义你的每日目标。就我自己而言，我发现使用第一个高于我的最高日常步行记录数字的整千位数作为开始是个很成功的决定。也就是说，如果我的最高日常记录是 3800步，那我就将至少4000步作为每日的目标。这通常意味着我需要多走1000步来确保我每一天都能超过那个目标。一旦那个目标变得像例行公事（通常是1周到2周后）。我就提高我的目标。

定下一个月的约定

当开始锻炼的人在一周的持续努力后却看不到任何好处，他们往往会放弃自己的计划（或者至少开始变得倦怠）。一周时间实在是太短了，以至于不能让人看到任何值得注意的变化。甚至在一个月之后，你身上的最大变化也只是在你的感觉上，而不是在你的外表。当你开始的时候，至少保证坚持一个月的时间，否则你只是在浪费时间。

从月初开始。这样做有助你在整个月中都把时间表记在脑子里——你能够清楚的知道开始日期和结束日期。对于你开始做的事情来说，这是个很合适而且有约束力的时间段.

准备一个锻炼计划。书面的把你每天将做的活动列下来——然后执行它。也可以打乱次序，这样就不会变得枯燥。我通常每天都做伸展运动和瑜伽，但是在某一周中我会试着做一系列不同的事情，这样就不会变成同样的事反反复复。

只在月初和月末检查成果。如果你是打算通过锻炼减轻体重或者你是通过在绕着街区跑了一圈后如何喘息来测量的，最好在月初的时候进行测量，然后直到月末之前别再测。给自己一点时间来达成一些真正的进展，那样你就能清楚的看到事情正进行的很好。

基于锻炼本身树立清楚而可靠的目标

在我最早开始减肥的时候，我把希望减少到的体重作为目标——当我一次又一次的失败，我感到持续的挫败感。我花了一点时间才意识到我设定了错误的目标。我设定的目标只是部分受锻炼的控制，而我却希望锻炼就能帮我达成目标。更好的方式是认识到，只要你坚持，锻炼将最终把你带向苗条身材或者你希望的目标体重，这里有一些小窍门。

把确定的锻炼次数作为目标。说“我要在接下去的3个月中每天走10000步”，而不要说“我要减掉40磅体重”。对前一种方式而言，问题仅仅在于拿出努力来锻炼，而不依赖于你体内的化学反应是否会帮助你抬头向上看。确保你设定的目标对于自己来说不是那么容易达到的。如果你目前的锻炼内容看起来很简单，那就试着改变目标来增加挑战性。如果你能够轻松的每天走上10000步，那就增加总的步数，或者把部分的步子改为跑步或者跳步。

和其他人一起庆祝你的成功。当你达成了一个有挑战性的目标，不要怕对此感到很高兴。告诉别人你的成功，你就会发现当你挑战自己向更好的体型努力时，他们很快会成为你的支持。

尝试其他锻炼形式

虽然健步和伸展运动是达到较好体型的两个简单方法，但还有许多不需要你花费金钱在健身房会籍和昂贵的健身器材上的方法可以选择——只需要投资时间。我个人经常利用the exercise ladder网站上提供的方法来保持激励状态。那个网站上给出了采取哪种锻炼方式，做多少运动量，如何确定自己已经准备好了提升锻炼级别的清晰指引，此外，这个网站还还设法将目标直接整合到锻炼程序中。这里有一些可用于扩展你的锻炼方式的窍门。

从稍低于你认为自己能够承受的运动量开始。这样，你就不会由于在一开始运动太多而导致过度运动，或者意外的扭伤哪个部位。一旦你学会怎么做了，慢慢的从容的加大运动量，直到你到达一个对你有挑战性的级别——然后就在那个级别锻炼。

大量重复轻负荷重量练习和锻炼要好于较少次数的大负荷重量练习和锻炼。要点在于锻炼你的肌肉，而重复是成功的真正关键。你会从每组十次的五组十磅重量练习中得到比每组十次的一组五十磅重量练习更多的总体好处——这也许不会让你的肌肉最快速的增长，但会帮助改善你的心肺健康以及极大的降低肌肉受伤的机会。

是否需要一个健身房会籍？对某些人来说，和其他人一起锻炼的乐趣或者能够获得教练指导确实是能够产生很大的不同，但是别贸然的注册一个长期会员资格。买一个你能够得到的最短的会员期限（即使这样单价会比较贵），然后看看这样是否真的对你有用。如果有用，就继续下去并注册一个长一点的会籍期限——如果不是，那你也可以将花费降低到最低。