Listen to Your Doctor: Is that Good Advice?

Should you listen to your doctor if they advise you not to exercise? Is your physician giving you good advice when they tell you to skip the strength training? I've been wanting to write this article for awhile, but it sounds so controversial for me to suggest that anyone should not listen to their doctor that I have hesitated. I'm afraid I could go off on some kind of Dennis Miller rant, for those of you who remember him from Saturday Night Live. At the very least, I want you to have the facts and decide for yourself.

On more than one occasion, I've heard someone say that their doctor has advised them against exercising, particularly strength training. My first reaction is to wonder if their doctor really said that. How could a doctor be so irresponsible as to actually tell a patient not to exercise. Surely the person had heard incorrectly or perhaps they heard what they wanted to hear. It doesn't take much of an excuse for most people to avoid exercise and if their doctor said anything that slightly resembled skipping exercise, many people would grab a hold of that and not let go. When quizzing them further, however, it has become clear to me that some doctors are, in fact, advising patients not to exercise, for one reason or another.

Many doctors know shockingly little about exercise, muscles and the benefits of strength training. With all due respect to the medical community, because exercise is out of their scope of practice, they tend to downplay its importance. Many times, rather than prescribing exercise, they suggest rest or at most, recommend walking. The body is designed to move, though, so rarely is inactivity the healthier choice and walking is not enough to maintain muscle and strength. Sedentary lifestyles are the cause of numerous health problems. Perhaps one part of your body may need to be rested or perhaps your exercise program needs to be modified to accommodate illness or disease. Unlike doctors, personal trainers are experts at exercise, muscles and strength training and can easily adapt your program to fit your body's needs and help you safely maintain muscle and strength.

Refraining completely from exercise will simply result in muscular atrophy and wasting that can start a vicious downward spiral that includes weakness, lack of energy and weight gain. But I'm just a personal trainer, what do I know?