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"I don't have the time right now."

"I'm too tired."

"Between work and the kids, it's impossible."

These common excuses are mainly responsible for the high percentage of people in the United States engaging in too little physical activity or none at all. The 1997 National Health Interview Survey showed 40 percent of adults do not exercise. Despite the importance of regular exercise to disease prevention and health promotion, the National Center for Health Statistics also reports an estimated 60 percent or more of adults are either inactive or underactive.

Reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers (e.g., prostate and colon/rectal) doesn't seem to be enough incentive to become active. Studies show a 50 percent dropout rate--most within the first few months--among those who start an exercise program. "Even among cardiac rehab patients who know exercise can help keep them alive, 50 percent still quit," says Jack Raglin, Ph.D., associate professor of kinesiology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Why aren't health benefits enough to get people moving? "We are asking people to exercise for the rest of their lives, so hopefully they won't have a heart attack. [But] that [is] not enough motivation," says Bess Marcus, Ph.D., director of the Physical Activity Research Center and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School and Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:50 AM