Other exercise

This exercise program is intended to help you reach and maintain a reasonable level of physical fitness. It's safe to say that once you're doing the exercises above rung 20, you're in far better shape than most of the people you pass on the street.

If you're inclined to participate in active sports, work out with weights, or engage in other forms of exercise, great! With this program as a foundation, you can extend your fitness in any number of ways. If you have the time, and you enjoy it, it'll only make you healthier and happier. I'd recommend, however, that unless you participate on an absolutely regular schedule, you look on those forms of training as supplemental to the basic level of fitness maintenance provided by this program.

If, nevertheless, you're inclined to say, ``One hour at the gym is worth a day's exercise on the Lifetime Ladder'' it's easy to see if that's true. If you find it hard to maintain your current rung, or to progress at the rate you wish, then the other exercise isn't adequately replacing the balanced set of exercises this program provides. Feedback doesn't lie.

  The weight log spreadsheet contains a feature to help you keep track of other exercise programs. If you participate, whether regularly or sporadically, in such a program, put a check mark after the ``Rung'' column on your log sheet every day you do the other exercise. Record these check marks in the ``Flag'' field of the weight log worksheet by entering the number 1 in the Flag cells for the days you checked on your log sheet. The monthly log will display, at the foot of the Flag field, the percentage of days that month you performed the other exercise. This can give you a feel for how significant that activity is with regard to your weight or your progress up the Lifetime Ladder. The monthly logs, kept in your log book, will show your participation, which you can review as you evaluate your weight and health progress.

I use the Flag field to keep track of a weightlifting program with which I supplement my regular exercise. Every day I work out with weights, I check the flag field; at the end of the month I can see how frequently I got around to it. You can use the flag field to keep track of any event you'd like to track in connection with your weight and health, for example, every time you go out for pizza with the gang at lunchtime, or swim the Hellespont in lieu of dinner.