In early February, my travels took me to snowy Utah to speak at the Sports Medicine Winter Summit conference held in Park City. This is a yearly meeting I help organize for physicians and other healthcare providers with an interest in sports and exercise medicine. It is also a great chance to interact with friends and colleagues and enjoy some excellent skiing. This year’s conference did not disappoint, since both the lectures and the snow were very good. I gave several talks at this meeting on various topics including asthma, shoulder and knee problems and of course, exercise.

For me there is nothing better than getting out in the cold fresh air to ski. And while downhill skiing is obviously not as strenuous as cross-country skiing, you can still get in your daily exercise in by simply powering down the slopes. I certainly find myself winded and sweating at the end of a hard ski run and by the end of the day my legs are burning and feeling the strain of a good workout.

It is important to understand that the benefits of exercise are the same regardless of the type of exercise you do. So while I mostly tend to talk about walking in this blog, it is certainly not the only form of exercise that will benefit your health. Any activity that works large muscle groups, while getting you a bit winded and sweaty, will count as exercise. So you can get the same benefit from walking briskly, or by doing yard or housework vigorously or by skiing downhill at a fast pace. It all counts the same.

So I hope this blog finds you well and getting in your daily exercise, whatever it might be. It is just important that you do something each day to move your body and gain the tremendous health benefits that exercise provides.

Keep walking my friends!

Bob