I want to share three You Tube videos with you.  One is funny, one is informative and one is inspirational.

This is how not to exercise.

If you have tension in your back or think that you have bad posture, try this thoracic mobilization two to three times a week for two sets of twelve repetitions.  What’s a thoracic mobilization you ask?  It’s a passive or active movement intended to increase the range of motion in your upper back.  This particular one is active.

I love this last one.  It puts tears in my eyes every time.  Try not to cry.  I dare you.

Do you have some favorite videos you would like to share? Send me the url.

Jamie Dreyer is the President of Further Fitness NYC.

How like life is the endive, well shaped but ah…so bitter.

I’m eating vegetables. I’m not particularly proud of this fact but it’s the truth. I have eaten more vegetables since starting my diet last Monday than in the previous six months. And not the fun vegetables either, the green ones. No corn, no potatoes, no carrots and no peas. I can, however, eat kale, cabbage and kohlrabi to my hearts content. Kohlrabi? Great, now I have to “google” vegetables to find out just how much I’m going to hate eating them.  For the record Kohlrabi is a German turnip with the taste and texture of a broccoli stem. A broccoli stem? Yum! Give me more of that!

I take solace in knowing that my green, leafy aversion is typical of many brought up in my class (blue collar) and my country (the good ‘ol USA) and that many of us were trained to dislike vegetables almost from birth. If your ethnic background, like mine (German/Irish), was one whose default method of vegetable preparation was boiling until unrecognizable, chances are your veggie hating ways were pretty much set at a very young age. I was in my late teens before I discovered that some cultures actually found ways to make their veggies delicious. In defense of my flavor challenged ancestors I will admit that it’s hard to think of interesting ways to cook food while fighting with Mrs. O’Brian over the last spud in Ireland. People who grew up hungry really don’t care a whole lot about taste, as I was constantly reminded throughout my childhood:

There are children starving in Armenia who would kill for your creamed spinach.

My pleas to send the food to the Armenians and end the Great Creamed Spinach Famine of the mid 70’s fell on deaf ears.

I’m sure that I will eventually reap the benefits of eating a wider variety of veggies as soon as my body remembers how to process roughage. But I digress. Vegetables are our friends and almost any of them can be rendered eatable with enough garlic and olive oil.

Oh yeah. Anybody know how to cook a chayote?

Bob Speck lives and writes in Los Angeles.  He has no idea why.

If you’re one of those not fortunate enough to live in a place where the sun shines eternally, you probably have had to deal with the winter slump:  a period of aimlessness when the idea of exercising outdoors seems much less attractive than sitting inside by a warm fire and gorging on bread pudding.There are some tricks, though, which can lure you out the door even in the dead of a never-ending Chicagoland winter.  Runner’s World has a helpful article with suggestions for comfortable clothing choices for exercising in frigid temperatures.  If it’s not the cold air but the snow and ice on the sidewalks/paths that have you spooked, you could try any number of over-the-shoe contraptions engineered to stop you from slipping during a run, such as the Yaktrax Pro ($30), which is made of steel and rubber and has a “spikeless coil design,” or the STABILicers.  There’s even a lower-cost option that’s been handed down from runner to runner, and is described here thoroughly by Matt Carpenter; it basically consists of drilling about 15 or so small screws into the soles of your running shoes, and supposedly it works like a charm for keeping you stable on icy roads.Once you’re suited-up, grab the iPOD (loaded with the latest episodes of Le Show and Wait Wait. . . Don’t Tell Me!), and you’re out of excuses.If all that doesn’t work, you can always use the incentive that got me out the door this morning:

If Rod Blagojevich can do it, I sure as hell can!

Jeanine Casler lives, writes, and runs in Evanston, Illinois.

I would love to inform you that I am the paragon of exercise, that I balance cardio, strength, and flexibility workouts, that I plan my schedule so that exercise completes my day before it has even begun.  I would be overjoyed to talk about how I spring from bed early in the morning, waiting to speed out the door on my morning run or daily bike ride or yoga experience.

I would also be lying.

Perhaps I offer something of an understatement when I tell you that I’m not a morning person.  Though I bridle at the harshness, some family members have even described my morning persona as the love child between Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolfman.

So a.m. exercise usually involves an internal struggle, one mirrored by my death-grip on my pillow.  I do not want to give up the symbol of all that is lovely and peaceful and snoozy.  Who wants to drag himself from the cocoon of warm blankets, only to step outside into the cold air, move protesting muscles through the semidarkness, then get sweaty, all in time to rush through the door, run through the shower, sprint back to the car with breakfast in hand?

Or so I say to myself in the early mornings when I consider my allotted exercise time.

When I do force myself out of bed (winning or losing the argument, depending on your side), I clump down stairs, find the appropriate shoes, and try to find a hat to cover my bed-hair.  The cold taunts me as I step outside.  “Mr. Grumpy,” it says,

You should have stayed in bed.

Did I mention that Cold has a voice like a deranged Bugs Bunny?

But I’m awake now, so I start moving slowly, thinking only of the darkness, the soft pillow behind me, the silence.

Partway through the run or bike ride or yoga, the endorphins tumble through my blood stream, and the grumpiness melts away (or, dissipates slightly, given my rather taciturn personality).  The muscles, warm now, move me along smoothly, and my brain wakes.  Ideas percolate.  I think about a possible concept for this blog.  I draw a cartoon in my head.  I understand how I’m going to use a book in my classroom.  I remind myself, once again, that I love running and biking and yoga, exercise in general.  They provide a reminder of my moment’s experience, freedom for my imagination, awareness of the present.

When I finish the work out, I slow to a stop.  The warmth surrounds me, even in the chill air.  I smile, in spite of myself.

Good morning.

Robin Follet lives, writes, and cartoons in North Carolina.

I was training my client James the other morning when he began his weekly diatribe:

One of these days I will finally be consistent with working out and have a good body.

Although James does miss a week or two from time to time due to work or travel, he works out two to four times a week and has a beautiful, healthy body.  Let me also say that he is carrying more muscle than ever, recently took two inches off of his waist and said his remark as I was racking the dumbbells from the heaviest set of presses he has ever done in his life.  My reply was also the same as usual— my jaw dropped, I blinked twice and after a moment of silence told him to give himself more credit.  But then I asked him something new,

At what point will you feel your body is good?

His answer was a bit indirect but nonetheless clear to me.  He began asking about some of the other bodies in the room and whether or not it was realistic to achieve that without steroids.  Having known most everyone in the room for nearly ten years I assured him that his was the only body present that had never been aided by steroids.  But even if that hadn’t been the case, comparing his body to those around him was not a healthy way to judge his own success.  I quickly realized that he needed a better way of measuring his progress; otherwise, he would continue being disappointed with his results no matter how fantastic they were.I’ve had many clients and friends who lacked the healthy perspective necessary  to define what a real success would be.  Just last week I had to tell a very hard working and dedicated client that I could not support his ambitious goal of losing 65lbs. in 13 weeks.  My biggest concern is to have a client go through all the work of exercising regularly, eating better, improving their sleep habits, reducing their stress and achieving what anyone else would consider to be incredible results but not be able to enjoy them because they set the bar higher than any drug-free or healthy body could ever attain.Progress is not always going to be linear.  Your workouts are not always going to be consistent.  Work will be too busy for the gym some days.  Family and friends will make demands.  You will get sick.  One morning you will feel great about your body but come evening feel terrible, for seemingly no good reason.  You will have on days and you have off days.But there are countless ways to mark a success.  It may be the effortless ascension of a flight of stairs.  Newfound balance and coordination getting out of the tub.  No back pain this week.  Only took one sick day this winter and it was to play hooky with your lover.  Your sexy jeans fit again.  Carrying a child two blocks instead of one.  Seeing yourself again when you look into the mirror.I would like your measure of progress to be based on an overall improvement of performance and quality of life (sleep, stress levels, food quality, relationships, activity levels).  And instead of measuring improvement over the span of days or weeks, measure your progress over the span of a season or a year.  It just may be that the good body you seek is the body you are already living in.

Jamie Dreyer is the President of Further Fitness NYC.