The Benefit of Exercise (featuring the chin up)

You know what the benefit of exercise is? It’s the way you feel once you do it consistently. Strong. Capable. Able-bodied. Ripped. Raring and ready to go. It’s being able to run up a couple flight of stairs and not be winded. It’s looking good with your shirt off. Hell–it’s self-respect.

What kind of example are you setting for the next generation when you’ve become soft, complacent, and weak? Getting out of shape is a total disregard for life. “That’s my dad—he sits on the couch and drinks beer a lot and has a big belly. One day, I want to be just like him!”

Great.

“Kids these days,” people say. What about adults?!

Here’s a challenge for every adult out there. Men and women. Train yourself to do a chin up. Seriously. If every adult in America could do a chin up, our obesity problem would be solved. You just don’t see a whole lot of obese people doing chin ups. It’s a healthy-weight reinforcing exercise.

If you set one physical goal for yourself, let it be the chin up. And by golly, there’s a great resource to help—Steve Maxwell’s Your First Chin Up. No excuses.

The next thing you’ll need is a pull up bar. The Iron Gym is a great starting point. It just fits over your door and you can pull it off when you’re finished.

With some well-placed dollars, you can create a great home gym and library that give you the tools and information you need to forge a fantastic body and health to match. By immersing your mind in training information and looking at pictures of fit people, you’re on your way to forming a mental equivalent that will help you to increase your internal motivation to get in shape—and then you’re on your way!