Immunity

I can't stress enough the benefits of cardiovascular exercise.

If you pursue cardiovascular fitness, then what you are doing is literally building more capillaries and extending the reach of existing capillaries. This means that more nutrients and oxygen can be delivered more diffusely to all parts of your body because you actually create more highway to deliver those nutrients. It also means that you will improve your lung power and your heart's stroke volume.

Above all other preventative measures, this is the most powerful and effective - and life changing.

So cardio to lose weight? Well, yes - that will happen if you stay on course. But this is an example of a goal that people put forth and have no idea of the powerful effects that can take root if they could just see past the beginning - those first couple of months.

Imagine these effects: lungs that are twice as powerful - lungs that can gulp oxygen. A heart that beats 20 times less per minute but delivers more blood through your body with each beat. Everyday tasks that were once difficult now require little thought and have no consequence - climbing stairs, running with your daughter in the backyard, hopping a puddle on the street.

It makes me think back to when I started Agile - it was so important to me to create something that delivered these goals. I wanted to build something that explicitly didn't promise 'great abs in just 8 minutes a day.' That statement suggests that exercise is unbearable. That's not true - the act of exercise really is a pure example of living in the moment.

Life is not always meant to be pleasant, but it is meant to be lived. And that means conquering the comfortable and not-so comfortable.