should consider only 15 minutes of exercise, or even 10 minutes, as a
start, and also consult your doctor.
Case History
Alice was about to celebrate her 50th birthday, and thought it
was time to get into shape. She was never physically active in
sports, although she raised four children. She began a simple
program of walking for 20 minutes, Monday through Friday,
taking Saturday and Sunday off. After two months, Alice was
ready to increase to 30 minutes each day, and after another two
months progressed to 45 minutes. After a couple of years, Alice
had the desire to take a couple of long walks a week, gradual-
ly working up to about 90 minutes each time.How rapidly you increase the time period depends on your
response. Whatever the starting point, assuming the proper time is
chosen, maintain that time for at least three weeks. Listen to your
body; it will tell you if and when you can increase. This is also true for
any change: Maintain the new time for at least three weeks before
increasing it if that’s desired and there’s no difficulty.
Don’t increase more than 50 percent at any one time in a program
of up to 45 minutes, and not more than 15 minutes when the program
is 45 minutes or more. Some people are quite content remaining at 45
minutes. This is fine, since you can obtain many benefits when exer-
cising at this level five times per week.
Perform the MAF Test every three to four weeks. If any problems
develop, stop. A professional may be helpful in determining what’s
wrong.
What type of exercise should you do? When starting out, do
almost anything, as long as it’s aerobic. This may include, besides
walking, riding a stationary bike, dancing, rebounding (trampoline),
outdoor biking, swimming, hiking, cross-country skiing, and using
various exercise machines, such as rowing and skiing. Jogging, or
running, when done aerobically, is a healthy exercise. There is no uni-
versally accepted scientific distinction between running and jogging.
For the purposes of this book, I refer to jogging when I mean a much
220 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH