As a working personal trainer of almost 15 years, and an avid exerciser of 32 years, the single best exercise I know is uphill-walking. Don’t get me wrong, there are others but none that are more readily available, affordable, repeatable, offer more benefits and require less skill. Do understand that walking on flat ground is not the same. Nor are long walks with furry animal friends, if they require numerous pit-stops. My first taste of a humble hill came years ago when climbing my first mountain in Colorado with my close friend, Harley. A 14,ooo ft beast, as I recall. All i had to do was “walk” to the top. No problem. I was in prime health and it still kicked my ass. Sure, jogging may get your heart rate up just the same. Sprinting will certainly do this. But jogging tends to cause the most injuries of any exercise and “all-out sprinting” can only be tolerated by healthy individuals for infrequent short bouts. Not to mention, most people hate running of any kind. So I typically don’t recommend any unless someone truly loves it, or requires it, and a supreme attention to detail is observed. However, walking is arguably what our bodies were best built to do. So, find a hill. Try walking up and down it as many times as you can in 10-45 minutes (personally, I like 30 minutes as a sweet spot). No need to do more. Make it more challenging by walking faster or up a steeper grade, not longer. Repeat often. Walking is great for everything health & fitness. Don’t believe the haters. Write me if you’d like to join me sometime. Seriously. @blue_sky_strongbox #blueskystrongbox

You can be overweight and often still be healthy, especially with regular exercise, decent genetics and a decent diet. However, the same will most likely never be true for obesity. Am I suggesting that we all welcome each pound of body fat? No. Do I think six-pack abs are a requirement to be considered healthy and fit? Most certainly not. Just know that there is a difference between “some extra pounds” and obese. Most often this difference is easy to see with truthful eyes. Obesity can be very deadly and expensive, especially as time goes on. This photo shows two women, both supposedly the same age and the same height. Notice the difference in body fat, both inside and out. Keep this in mind, depending on someone’s height and body type, scale weight can often be misleading and vary greatly from person to person. I have friends that are well over 200lbs and perfectly healthy at their respective weight. However, I would probably be quite unhealthy with over 200 pounds on my frame. For the sake of comparison, imagine the girl on the right is at a low-risk “healthy” weight and body composition, and the girl on the left is the same girl a few years later with 130 pounds of body fat (which would now be more than twice her original weight, placing an enormous strain on all her bodily systems). My point is that we need to pay attention to our bodies. It’s so easy to let go of awareness and care, especially as we get older and life gets busier. This photo, this post, was not posted to fat-shame anyone. This a caring reminder that health is important and obesity destroys health. It has been proposed that the single best thing that any human can do to improve their health is to consistently walk 30 minutes every day. You may only be able to do 10 minutes. If so, this would be great place to start. Obviously, many other things will be in order over time but this is what I always recommend starting with first. Be better every day. #blueskystrongbox