These walks make my daily zen moment. Sometimes I come back and, if I try, I can’t remember what I was thinking about the whole time. Other times, however, and often, I mentally organize my day, or solve coding problems (or, more likely, study solutions to try later, once I’m at the keyboard). Sometimes I plan or dream about my future mountain trips, or remember past adventures, or plan motorcycle trips. Sometimes I listen to podcasts or music: there are mornings when I want to be on my own; others when listening to a well-told story is just what I need. In any case, once I get back, I feel refreshed, oxygenated, relaxed, and ready for the day’s work.

I rarely, if ever, skip my morning walk. I usually go out whatever the weather, but today, for the first time in a long, long time, I didn’t feel like braving the rain and the Bora wind (a condition that I usually enjoy), so I’m here writing about it instead.

Last year, Ashley and a large team of scientists conducted an elaborate experiment on the effects of exercise on the mammalian body. In one test, Ashley put rats on tiny treadmills, worked them out for weeks, and cut into them to investigate how their organs and vessels responded to the workout compared to a control group of more sedentary rodents.1 The results were spectacular. Exercise transformed just about every tissue and molecular system that Ashley and his co-authors studied—not just the muscles and heart, but also the liver, adrenal glands, fat, and immune system

Why Exercise is a Miracle Drug

I’m turning 55 in a few days, and sometimes I wonder if I should slow down or reduce the intensity of my training. I’ve made adjustments along those lines in recent years, but I suspect I am still pretty active for my age.

Today I read Herman’s post on the ROI of exercise, and it is spot on. It’s common sense; we’ve all read those things, but here they are nicely compiled. The concept that lifelong exercise “adds extra years to each stage of life rather than just frail years at the end” hit home for me.