It is estimated that almost 75% of adults do not get enough proper exercise even though it is well known that leading a sedentary lifestyle can be damaging, even deadly to health.
Our lives today give us little opportunity to be active and most of us sit for long periods both at work and at home in our leisure time.
Lack of activity in our lives brings with it the obvious risk of becoming overweight which is evident in the statistics that say two thirds of us are overweight or obese.
The organs and systems of the human body deteriorate and decay when they do not receive the stimulus of vigorous movement telling them to stay strong and healthy.
But let us have a look at other risks your body is subjected to starting with your heart.
A fit heart can pump 25% more blood than an unfit heart.
Not only can it pump more blood but it doesn't need as many beats to do it, meaning less strain.
Weak, flabby hearts have to work harder to process the same amount of blood.
People who exercise frequently also have a lower resting heart rate.
You can save your heart 18,000 beats per day if you become fitter and can reduce your resting heart rate just 10 beats a minute.
Besides basic heart health, inactivity can lead to a host of other health problems.
One of the diseases of the modern age is diabetes, a disease which can be avoided by exercising and eating right.
Even more frightening is the fact that children are now developing this disease.
The cause is simply too much food and too little exercise.
Children being born today will have an even harder time and are predicted to have a shortened lifespan of 20-30 years.
We might like to ask ourselves where they have learned this sedentary behavior.
Children today are the most overweight in history and it has been estimated than more than 30 percent of them are overweight.
Not surprising, considering that the average child spends 900 hours per year in school and 1023 hours watching television.
Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults, which increases to 80 percent if one or more parent is overweight or obese.
As the human body was designed to be physically active adults can do a lot to be good role models for their children by taking their own health and fitness seriously and making it a priority in their lives.
The difficulty is the fact that hard 'work', from farming to simply doing household chores without appliances, is no longer part of ordinary life for most people so we don't get that built in natural vigorous movement that our body's need to stay healthy.
A special effort needs to be made to reach children so they understand the necessity of being highly active throughout their lives.
This will help them avoid becoming overweight and weak like their parents and face the consequences like their parents of becoming sick and dying prematurely.
Surely this is not too much to ask that the adults lead the way.
After all none of us surely want to leave following generations a legacy of ill health and shortened lives.
If we all take some responsibility we can make the changes that are necessary that will greatly benefit future generations so they can be healthy children and grow into healthy adults.
One way to do this would be to do a strength training exercise together as a family.
What a great way to spend quality 'together' time as well as keeping the entire family fit and strong.
A family that exercises together stays healthy together.