Running for Your Life
of exercise that is superior to the others. Dr Weil, the natural health guru, strongly advocates 30-minute aerobic workouts five times a week. Aerobics are what one associates with Jane Fonda workout tapes and prancing fitness instructors, but the term applies to nearly all physical activity that is not specifically strength-oriented, such as walking, jogging, bicycling, swimming, and tennis.
The Suite's Natural Health Editor, Traute Klein, describes how she sweated her way back from the abyss:
"I won a three months spa membership as a door prize and started to take part in aerobics classes on a regular basis. I was not able to keep up with the rest of the class but participated to the best of my ability. To my amazement, the sustained, regular exercise heightened my well-being more than anything else I had tried. Gradually I came to experience the occasional feeling of euphoria at the end of a class ... I soon found that for me a stationary bicycle produced the euphoric feeling more readily than aerobics and it was less stressful on my injuries. That exercise also allowed me to work out by myself at times when the contact with other people was just too strenuous.
"Since I have learned to communicate with people again, I have gone back to my favorite aerobic exercise, aquacising. It is the easiest on me, because it is the least aggravating on the physical injuries."
When considering an exercise regime, it pays to keep realistic goals in mind. If the body is not accustomed to activity, it is going to fight back and enlist your mind in the cause. Don't expect to run a marathon your first week. Walking for 30 minutes is perfectly acceptable, and represents a giant step forward for those who have been inactive. Don't expect your depression to begin lifting until at least a few weeks, and don't look forward to slacking off when you start feeling better. Working out should be a life-long commitment.
Older people need to be especially mindful, for they tend to engage in less physical activity as they age, making them easy prey for depression, which they experience in greater numbers.
Of course, the last thing any of us want to do when caught up in a killer depression is crawl out of the covers and try to win three gold medals. You will probably have to wait until the worst of your symptoms abate before you
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