It is not uncommon to hear the “people are basically lazy” explanation for our epidemic of inactivity. However, under a little scrutiny, the “basically lazy” argument doesn’t seem to hold up. Throughout history people have willingly and even gladly suffered great hardships, taken risks and sacrificed a by no means intolerable life for a shot at a better life. Willing to die and ready to kill; to risk having blood spilled for things like love of country, honor and duty, or to pursue glory on the battlefield of life suggests we are more sentimental than lazy. As you are reading this right now, there are people lining up to climb Mount Everest and there are people lighting up a cigarette. Knowing full well Everest and cigarettes are unmerciful killers, the exhilarating promise of an experience that makes us feel whole and alive reveals our bold death-defying nature. We don’t just look for ways to make ourselves feel whole and alive; we work at it because we have no choice. Life demands we figure out how to experience those feelings of being whole and alive, but life is fickle; not just any experience will do. Life doesn’t want counterfeit feeling of wholeness and aliveness; it doesn’t want the superficial experience of a cheap high from lighting up, shooting up, taking antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs and other drugs. Life demands a density of experience; the depth of which fills every cell in our body with an excess of life, and connects us to the whole of life and nature all around us. This is the density of the exercise experience and it is the best reason to exercise. Though science is just catching up with this phenomenon, it is well-known to those who regularly exercise. Take a look at the video my two-time Emmy award-winning sister and I made interviewing runners on a cold, cloudy November morning and you will see why I tell people, if you are longing to live a life that is truly vital, I strongly suggest you start exercising today.