by Donald Schnell

Whoever you are you will be more successful in life if you exercise. In the 
1960's I watched Jack LaLanne, America's first televised exercise guru.

Jack performed stunts such as doing 1,000 chinups in 20 minutes. Then he would 
follow his performance by doing 1,000 pushups in another 20 minutes.

Jack was known at that time as the "excuse killer". 

Few people seriously looked at the benefits of exercise in the early 60's. We 
felt we didn't have time, didn't need it, or that it was dangerous. There were 
many myths about exercise.

I've met Jack LaLanne several times. On one occasion, I asked him, "Jack, I 
counsel people all the time. What exercise do I tell them to do, if they say they 
don't have time?"

"That's easy. Give them one exercise that requires no equipment, uses the whole 
body, and can be done almost anywhere."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Have them lie down on the floor and get up. They will use their powerful leg 
muscles, shoulders, chest, hips and back to get down and then get up."

"How many should they do?" I asked.

"Have them start with just ONE."

"Only one?"

"Yes, the important thing is to get them started. They can't tell you they 
don't have time. It takes just a few seconds. And they can't tell you they don't 
have the necessary equipment.

"But what could ONE do?"

"Everything! It will start them on the exercise HABIT. Tell them to do ONE 
today and tomorrow do 2. Tell them to commit to this everyday for a month. After 10 
days, they can break the routine up. They can do half their exercise in the 
morning and the other half at night or in the afternoon. For example let's say it 
is day 16. They can do 8 reps in the morning and another 8 reps after work. On 
the 30th day they could do 10 in the morning, 10 in the afternoon, and their 
last 10 at night, or they could do 15 in the morning and 15 at night. They could 
even try to go for all 30 in the morning. The important thing is to make this 
program work for them. You are teaching them to make exercise a habit. So start 
with only one exercise, but do it every day."

What about you? Are you going to do 1 rep?


Donald Schnell
CEO, Success For Today 
www.SuccessForToday.com