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By
Dr. Ben Lerner
How can you get in great shape, without leaving your property,
and without buying a piece of exercise equipment or joining the
gym? Do the chores. Fitness may just be a "to do list"
away.
After working with tens of thousands of patients, two Olympic teams
and several professional teams, I've found that the majority
of people will not exercise regularly unless there's a gold
medal or money on the line. Even top athletes tend to fall off the
exercise track when defeat is not imminent.
The obvious basic reason for such a global lack of commitment to
exercise is that people just don't feel like it. After all,
the word exercise sounds hard, painful and boring.
In the beginning, God created man and woman to move. He gave them
joints that bend, hands that grab, arms that swing, legs that run,
feet that kick and muscles that stretch, pull and bench-press. .
.
And He saw that this was good.
Before the dawn of technology, everything having to do with survival
required movement. Building a shelter, traveling from one place
to another, growing food and hunting for dinner all required physical
action. On the other hand, in today's world, you can do just
about everything without ever moving more than a finger. You can
buy a house, make travel arrangements and order lunch and never
leave your desk
And He saw that this was bad.
I am always very leery about saying the word "exercise."
That word conjures up images of grueling long-distance runs, the
latest aerobics craze, that piece of home fitness equipment that
has since become an expensive towel rack and working out in a gym
the way guys with tattoos named Gunther work out.
The reason these images are so unappealing to most people is that
they are not the kind of movements God first had in mind. I call
this "Exercise by man." Exercise should be safe, seem
natural, and can even be fun. Activity like this I call, "Exercise
by God." Exercise by God is the method of and intensity level
at which God designed the body to exercise.
Exercise by man includes the following:
- Unnatural movements
- Strange exercise equipment
- Strange aerobic programs
- Abusive sports
- Constantly pushing your heart, lungs, muscles and joints to
their maximum limits
These are all things man decided were good things to do, not God.
In fact, Exercise by man massively increases the potential for injury,
organ failure, hating to exercise, quitting or never even getting
started in the first place. Exercise by God does not cause physical
or emotional damage or destruction; it causes physical and emotional
construction or reconstruction.
Children can play on a playground and get several hours of aerobic
and resistant training while having fun and not even realizing they
are getting a workout. What can you do to get exercise every day,
the way you were created to, and enjoy yourself at the same time?
- Cut the grass
- Walk
- Bike
- Paint a fence
- Jog
- Go hiking
- Build a deck
- Swim
- Play basketball or tennis
- Carry your golf clubs.
Which one will be your Exercise by God?
Dr.
Ben Lerner, Dr. Greg Loman and Dr. Rob Schiffman have three
of the largest chiropractic centers in the history of the chiropractic
profession. Their organization, Teach The World About Chiropractic,
teaches a high-tech, vitalistic chiropractic approach to wellness
care. They also teach a God-centered lifestyle through Dr. Lerner's
New York Times Best Selling book, Body
by God: The Owner's Manual For Maximized Living.
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