Welcome

Here's the low-down, the straight skinny.  I enjoy a variety of fitness related activities; though, I don't fancy myself any sort of competitive athlete.  I've never been one to focus too heavily on one aspect of fitness, nor to train for one particular sport.  I endorse a broad general fitness base.  One that makes you faster, stronger, more agile, more endurant (is that a word?), more injury resistant.  I believe fitness is not primarily a measure of how you look (though it IS often a side effect), but of how you can perform and how healthy you keep your body.  This can be as simple as the working mom with a job and 4 kids who follows her yoga DVD, rides a stationary bike, or does some push-ups when she steals a few minutes to herself in the evening, or it can be as committed and hell-bent on elite fitness as the guys at Gym Jones, the founder of which once said:


 "The goal of physical training can be summed up in one phrase, 'to make yourself as indestructible as possible.' The harder a man is to kill, the longer he will remain effective, as a climber, a soldier, or what ever." -Mark Twight


Most of us have a day job, or go to school, or have some other non-optional daily activity that commands most of our time.  Few of us can devote our entire life to pushing the boundaries of our own personal fitness, but all of us can DO SOMETHING to better our own health.  You have to find where you lie on the continuum, decide what your goals are, and take steps to reach them.  You are probably capable of more than you think, but you'll never know unless you try.  I like the personal motto of Georges Hébert, creator of La Méthode Naturelle (or Natural Method) of physical training:


"Être fort pour être utile"--"Being strong to be useful."


Whether you're an athlete or a reforming coach-potato, whether you hold performance as the ultimate pinnacle of human accomplishment or just want to look a little better on the beach this summer, I hope you find something useful or at least interesting in the posts to follow.  I expect to post a variety of things in this blog; expect to see links and summaries of advice written by others, pieces written by yours truly, maybe some photos, videos or accounts of my own personal experiences.  


-Now, go do some push-ups-




Ps.  I am still in search of a good title for this blog.  The current "Health To Pay" is just a working title for now.  It's a slightly (and I mean slightly) amusing pun, but I think we can do better.  If you have any ideas, let me know.  I like clever.