No More Exercise Excuses

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By Diane Donofrio Angelucci

When Larry King, host of Larry King Live, needs to break through his excuses not to exercise, he has a trick that works like a charm. “I think about the emergency room and being in the emergency room with a heart attack. That always works,” says King, who had a heart attack and quintuple heart bypass surgery in 1987. “I think you find your own best method. Think of having a heart attack. Think of not being around. Think of it like, if I don’t do this, I won’t see my children any more. Make it the starkest case you can imagine and work off that. Take a negative and make it a positive.”

Once you’ve decided to become more physically active, make an exercise plan that will work comfortably for your lifestyle. (If you have any cardiac risk factors, check with your doctor before starting an exercise routine.) Consistently remind yourself why you want to become healthier, and let those reasons motivate you to keep it up. Use these tips to whittle away your excuses.

1. Exercise is boring.
Solution: “Find an exercise that you would really enjoy,” says Joan Price, fitness expert and author of The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book: 300+ Quick and Easy Exercises You Can Do Whenever You Want. Think about what you enjoyed as a child or a teen. Did you dance? Roller skate? Take your dog for a run? “Bring the childlike joy back into your exercise program,” she says.

Also, make over your mind-set. Stop considering exercise a chore; think of it as an escape. “Exercise is actually an opportunity to do something strictly for yourself, to have singular focus for a period of time where you’re just focusing on you,” says Jonathan Ross, owner of Aion Fitness and American Council on Exercise 2006 Personal Trainer of the Year. “Exercise helps clear your mind because it gives you a chance to escape the buzz of everything else.”

If your workout is monotonous because you stick with the same activity throughout, mix it up and do what you can to keep it interesting. King walks on the treadmill for 20 minutes and pedals a stationary bike for 20 minutes. “I watch TV while exercising,” he says.

2. I’m too busy.
Solution: “Make time,” says King, who founded The Larry King Cardiac Foundation after his experience. “Anything important, you can make time for. I don’t buy that excuse at all. I’ve made it myself at times, but it’s phony.” If you’re traveling, search out the hotel gym or explore the city on foot. “You’ll miss sometimes, but where there’s a will there’s a way,” King says. “That’s one of the oldest proverbs, but it really works.”

To squeeze some exercise into your busy daily schedule, exercise physiologist Andy Core suggests wearing a pedometer to see how many steps you can walk in a day. Another option is to break up your 30-minute exercise routine into three 10-minute chunks spaced throughout your day. Research by Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D., shows that participants who built up to 15 vigorous 10-minute sessions per week for three weeks lost an average of 3 pounds, improved their aerobic capacity, had a 15-point decrease in total cholesterol, and experienced other health benefits.

3. I don’t see results.
Solution: Surprise your body by doing new things, Price says. For example, choose a new type of exercise or challenge yourself by adding a bit more incline as you walk on the treadmill or try adding some 15-second higher-intensity intervals. “If you’ve been doing the same program for months or years, your body eventually adapts to that,” she says.

You might have to add an extra push, Ross says. “It’s really just asking the body to step a little bit outside that comfort zone,” he says. “That’s how a workout stays progressively challenging, which leads to better results.”