It is a new year, and with it comes all of the resolutions to be healthier and promises to complete workouts. It is an interesting story on how many people actually stick with their resolutions and how many only make it through them for a month or two. For some people I know, only weeks were conquered before going back into the same routine. Now I won’t say that I am an expert on exercise or a majoring athletic trainer, but I am an athlete. That has to count for something when talking about exercise.

Exercise is a task that not all people enjoy and that is noted by many people who are familiar to the sporting/exercise world. There is a cloud that seems to follow the term exercise and it seems to portray it as something strenuous or in other terms, a hard workout that you are exhausted afterwards from by taking part in it. Well this is not the case. Many believe that in order to be healthy, you have to go to the gym for 2-3 hours, or take part in a 2 hour class. This is somewhat not the ideal way to look at things in terms of getting exercise.

The importance of exercise is this: be active. It does not have to include anything that takes significant time out of your day or include a membership to the gym, but it can just include something that enhances where you are now in your life in terms of exercise –  even if it includes taking those four flights of stairs instead of the elevator in Shilling. You can do it, even if those flights of stairs leave you breathless for a minute or two. On top of that, it can be those small improvements to your everyday life that can alter your health for the better. By simply adding 30 minutes to your day of walking, it can make you feel more energized and burn a few extra calories. While walking, you can even enable a movie to play on a smart device to pass the time even sooner.

According to student Drew Burge, the importance of exercise “is to keep yourself healthy.” If you have that New Year’s resolution to get in better shape, but do not have the time to keep that resolution, just think about the importance of being a better person in the long run. Even if it is not going hard core at the gym, but instead it involves a few laps of walking around campus to enjoy the view, that is still exercising. Even if it is getting 8 pound dumbbells for use during T.V. commercials, that is still exercise and even better, while still enjoying your same old routines. So in the end, even if you had a resolution to exercise or just wanted to get healthier, remember this, exercise is something that can be fit into your daily schedule at any point of the day no matter how small an adjustment. So think and see where you can improve your daily routine and keep in mind that any small activity is an important step towards exercising and a healthier life.