Finding Time For Exercise: Busy Parents' Workout

I'M TOO BUSY

Experts say the "life is too hectic" excuse is by far the most common one. Trying to cram in an exercise regimen with work, personal relationships, friends, family, and errands may seem futile. But people who exercise are busy, too. They just make working out a priority.

"Anything that is important to you, you'll find the time for," says Chris Imbo, managing director of health lifestyle company Welldome and a personal trainer. His client Jonathan Tisch, cochairman of the board of Loews Corp., works out five to six mornings a week, either with Imbo--usually lifting weights in the gym--or on his own, running in Central Park or using a treadmill or elliptical trainer indoors. "It's embedded in my way of thinking," says Tisch, 52. "It's like brushing my teeth."

Working out also may not take as much time as you think. "You can spend a relatively minimal amount of time--30 minutes on most days--and it will give you such a big return," says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer with the American Council on Exercise. You can also accumulate exercise throughout the day, say, by taking the dog for a brisk 15-minute walk in the morning and then again after dinner. .

Experts also say the best way to fit in exercise, as Tisch does, is to work out first thing in the morning. You're a lot less likely to have competing demands on your time at 6 a.m. than in the evening.If you are not a morning person, schedule sessions when you are less likely to blow them off and try writing them on your calendar or BlackBerry like a meeting. There will be trade-offs. "Everyone has different demands on their time and money," says Chideya, who is chronicling her efforts to get in shape on the National Public Radio show News & Notes with Ed Gordon. "That's just the way it is."

Despite the well-documented health benefits of exercise, fewer than half of adults in the United States get the minimum amount necessary for those rewards: 30 minutes of aerobic activity, most days a week. A quarter of Americans are sedentary. And the older people get, the less likely they are to exercise. That's a lot of people with a lot of excuses. And yet few of them are valid, say experts. There are just not that many people who truly can't exercise. The next few pages offer a field guide to overcoming inertia. Be honest. Your favorite excuse is probably among them.

Why bother?

Imagine the line outside the office of a doctor who is dispensing a treatment that incontrovertibly shows it can help prevent chronic diseases and early death. That's what a comprehensive review of medical research published in March in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said about regular physical activity. The authors found that there was "irrefutable evidence" that consistent exercise lowers the risk of illnesses including heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, depression, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends moderate-intensity exercise, which means your heart rate gets going but not so much that you are huffing and puffing and unable to carry on a conversation. Think biking, inline skating, using an elliptical trainer, and swimming. Strength training like lifting weights can also help prevent bone and muscle loss and shore up joints stressed by arthritis or pain (box, Page 61).

While the link between better health and exercise is clear, scientists are still nailing down exactly how physical activity reduces the risk of certain diseases and which of its effects stem in part from the weight loss that can result when working out is coupled with good nutrition. Several different factors, for example, most likely reduce the odds of developing heart disease. Exercise increases blood flow, for one, which stimulates the release of a chemical that relaxes artery walls and lowers blood pressure.

It also seems to egg on the release of an enzyme that improves cholesterol balance, driving more of the "good" kind and less of the artery-clogging "bad" kind. It may also cut systemwide inflammation, which has been implicated in heart disease and a host of other ailments. And, of course, exercise can help control weight, which reduces the harmful effects of excess fat.

With cancer, the mechanisms are less clear. Exercise may limit estrogen circulation, which can stimulate some types of breast cancer, possibly through reducing body fat. And it may lower colon cancer risk by keeping the digestive system active, cutting the exposure of colon tissue to cancer-causing agents in food. "There is so much evidence that allows us to really prescribe exercise for someone," says Paul Ribisl, chair of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "The most difficult issue challenging us is how to change [people's] physical activity and eating patterns."

Although there is no precise prescription for thwarting any one disease, the overall message is clear: Get up, and get moving.

10 Minute Body-Weight Express
LUNGE:straight,diagonal,and/or side
3x20
PUSHUP
3x max.
STAR JUMP
2x 20
BICYCLE AND ROTATE
2x max.
WALK,JOG,OR RUN INTERVALS
5 Sets of 30 seconds on,30 seconds off
Repeat circuit 2 times with minimal rest between exercises.