Taking Care of Yourself

Your own personal physical plant is just as important as your equipment. Spending time on fitness can mean better health and more energy at work.

I used to stay in shape by playing basketball, and for years I could run up and down the court like a deer. Then I blew out my Achilles tendon at age 40 and decided to give that sport up.

I never became a couch potato. Depending on the season, I walked or bicycled vigorously, and regularly, for about 16 years. But it wasn’t enough, and about six months ago I decided to up the ante and take up running.

Working on it slowly, I built up to where now I can run two miles with no walk breaks on a consistent basis and can sometimes do three or four. I felt the benefits during the recent Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo, where I spent long days walking the show floor, doing errands, and shuttling back and forth to seminar rooms.

Whereas at previous Expos my feet and legs were shot by one or two o’clock and I had to tough out the last few hours of the day, this year I had plenty of energy. I won’t say I wasn’t tired at five o’clock, but my feet weren’t sore, my legs didn’t ache, and I still had some spring in my step.

The biggest asset

I don’t say all this by way of bragging. I say it because I’m surprised at how much and how directly my increased exercise has helped me, and I wonder how many readers my age and younger (or for that matter, older) could benefit from a fitness program.

Successful managers take great care of their equipment and often even better care of their people. But many don’t take proper care of themselves. And after all, our bodies are the most important physical assets we have. Without health, we’re nowhere. Are you as physically fit as you should be?

If you knew me a little better, I might be one of the last guys you’d picture as a jogger. I always hated running for its own sake. I’d gladly play basketball, softball, touch football, tennis — but to me running was a gigantic bore.

Back in my early 30s I wrote a newspaper column disguised as a chapter from a “book” called The Non-Runner’s Book of Running. In it I enumerated the reasons not to become a runner, such as the fact that the fabled “runner’s high” does in fact occur — from morphine-like substances released by the brain under extreme stress. The healthy non-runner, I wrote, wants nothing to do with drug addiction.

Not for fun

And yet, there I am, on alternate days, jogging through the neighborhood. Do I like it? Not particularly. But I do like the way I feel after the workout, and so I carry on. I have no designs on running 10Ks or marathons. I’ll be satisfied to get to where I can run three miles or so consistently. That was the goal I set at the start, and I’m almost there.

Do you have a fitness goal? It doesn’t matter if you decide to jog, swim, bicycle, join a health club and exercise on the machines, or do something else altogether. What does matter is that you start looking after your physical well-being, if you’re not doing so already. It’s not necessarily easy. It takes time, of which you already may think you have too little. But if my experience can be relied upon, it is most worthwhile.

I know for a fact that I feel better. I also believe that in this day of ever-rising prices for medical care, being physically fit is the best “health insurance” one can get.

I’m not a prototype physical specimen. I’m not as religious about my exercise as I might be. I could eat healthier foods. There are about 20 pounds on me that it wouldn’t hurt a bit to lose. But at least I feel as though I am on a good path.

How about you? Would regular physical activity be beneficial? It can be hard to get started, and at times even harder to stay with it. But if a dedicated non-runner like me can do it, maybe you can, too.

Comments on this column or about any article in this publication may be directed to editor Ted J. Rulseh, 800/257-7222 or editor@mswmag.com.



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