For me, exercise is a daily part of life. I consider it as important as brushing and flossing teeth, washing my face and combing my hair. It’s something I do for an hour every morning. I feel that it’s extremely important to take very good care of my body. I want to stay strong, healthy and maintain a proper weight. I hope to enjoy peak quality of life as I grow older. There are days when I am tired, stressed, busy or have a headache and don’t feel like working out. I never skip a workout unless I am throwing up. I’ve worked out with a fever, allergie symptoms and an upset stomach. I exercise even when I have sore muscles. I sometimes push myself too far. I’ve strained my trapezius muscle, pulled my psoas muscle and got to the point where it hurt to walk around. I make sure to take the time to thoroughly warm up at the beginning of the workout. I thoroughly stretch all of my different muscles and loosen up my joints. I am careful about switching up the types of exercises I do from one day to another. While I like to include some type of aerobic exercise in each workout, I am careful about resting and avoiding too many days of hard impact in a row. I intersperse workouts with riding my bike, kayaking and swimming. I add in strength training, including lifting weights, plank holds, lunges and squats. I always go through various types of ab crunches and work on flexibility, balance and stamina. At the end of the workout, I am conscientious about the cool down.