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Should you say take it easy?

Most of us always say take it easy when we say good by. This is a well-intentioned phrase that makes us think we have told a friend something good for him or her, something well within the bounds of our feelings of duty, concern and trust.

Our doctors seem to always be telling us the same. Their job, it seems, is to recommend rest and relaxation on almost every appointment. Indeed, almost no one has ever been told that he or she should work harder or exert themselves more completely to become healthier. In fact, one is almost always told to radically cut back if he or she has the least little thing wrong with them.

If we are health club members, we may see signs cautioning us against  straining, which is thought to be evidenced by heavy breathing and sweating. Instead, what we are supposed to do is take our workouts easily, going through the motions as it were. Supposedly this is the best for us. But, after seeing an Olympic champion work out, it really is unclear why.

What is this apparent aversion to hard work? Is it that it is so much a part of us because of our American history prior to 1960? To be sure, labor unions had just come to existence within the preceding decades. They were created to guard against employee abuse by heartless business owners. Prior to that, people's jobs were dependent upon doing hard tasks for consecutive twelve or fourteen hour days--something that most of us would believe to be ultimately unhealthy.

So much for the past. Where then are we all at in the present? Where should we be? Do the majority of us really need to hear about not pushing beyond healthy limits all that much? Perhaps we do in professions which have continual deadlines and the need to get others to comply with difficult expectations. But this is hardly the same when it comes to physical hard labor. The task masters and thier slaves are a breed of the past.

Today we almost never  break a sweat. The same is true for our respiration. It seldom if ever gets to the point of being so heavy that it requires us to take a breather (as this once used to be called.)Things just are not the way they used to be.

All due respect to labor unions and to doctors who care about the welfare of their patients. The same is true for friends who care about each other. But where does all of this leave us in a time which has been characterized as one in which there is an obesity epidemic?

The reader is encouraged to think hard about this before telling a friend or loved one to do that which may have the potential of adding extra weight, instead of taking some excess off. Maybe we all could start saying hang then there tougher in place of take it easy.

Order my book "Think and Grow Fit "

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About the Author

Obese 45 years ago; state champion power lifter 1978; in better shape today at 61 than when on swim team in high school
http://www.foreverfitness.info
http://blog.foreverfitness.info
Author of "Think and Grow Fit" a rational person's guide to getting fit and staying that way forever
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000139551
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Author (mark19). Submitted on Wed, 2 Jun 2010 Time: 11:06 AM

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