The human body is the most perfect machine, or it should be. Therefore everyone should try to maintain that machine in the best possible condition. Doing so can at least delay the ravages of old age and disease, which catch up with us a lot sooner than we think. There is no doubt that a fit person, not necessarily a fanatic, although there are plenty of those, can put more into, and take more out of, the life he leads.

A combination of sensible, not starvation, eating and regular exercise will keep your body in condition to cope with all the demands, be they mental or physical, made upon it. The immense progress made in recent years in medicine and exercise techniques, combined with ever increasing media coverage, means that most of us have some knowledge of health. Fifty years ago hardly anyone knew about the effects of smoking and over eating. The attention given by the media to these subjects alone has made most people aware of these modern killers.

The need to keep our bodies physically and mentally fit comes largely from the artificiality of modern life. The pace of life, particularly in cities, is speeding up and modern technology has helped to change it into something our bodies were not designed for. That is why many of us live in a constant state of tension and stress, and that is why doctors prescribe millions of ant-depressants, tranquillizers and sleeping tablets a year. A few years ago these prescriptions were hardly thought of, now they are common place and are even taken by people who firmly believe they are fit.

The greater proportion of the population never consciously take any exercise from the time of leaving school. And many people still at school avoid any sort of organized physical recreation if they can.

Pre-packed supermarket foods are often too refined to contain a great deal of goodness. The consumption of sugar is the cause of much dental decay, even in an age when dental services are free. Toothpastes are a thousand times more varied than they used to be. Yet the standard of our teeth has deteriorated. Not only children, but millions of adults, consume sweet drinks and chocolate bars as daily snacks.

Many aspects of modern life are really helping to destroy us, although they provide us with what we imagine to be an easy, comfortable way of life. Half and hour's progressive exercise three times a week will pay enormous dividends. More is even better. You can spend more time than this in having a chat on your doorstep or a quick drink. I am not saying that you shouldn't enjoy socializing. But remember that the commonest excuse for not exercising is lack of time.

How Much, How long?

These are the two questions that every physical training instructor gets hurled at him more than any other. And no two questions, let us be honest, are more difficult to answer. Measurements used to be fashionable. Nowadays they are only regarded as a guide to improvement. Your development is very closely associated with your physical type. There are still some weighing machines that claim to tell you what, at a certain age and height, you ought to weigh. They did, and still do, frighten people to death.

So much depends on a man's potentialities, and I defy anyone to forecast these entirely accurately from his measurements. And a great deal more depends on the way he takes to the work, how well he sticks to it and the amount of effort he puts into it.

The Potential

Your potential, apart from other factors, depends on your physical type - to use a layman's terms: small, medium, or large boned. When assessing your weight, for instance, you may have a large or small head. This could naturally make a difference in your body weight of three or four pounds. It is how you look that matters, rather than what the tape measure tells you, so use a tape only to generalize on your progress. All one can really promise is that by progressive exercises and one's own initiative and resolve one can transform himself beyond any predictions.

There is one thing that is always encouraging to remember. This is a game where there are no failures. Follow any progressive weight training exercise program for three months and at the end of that time you will be fitter, stronger and more muscular than you are today. How much more muscular depends on you and the amount of work you put into it.

Yet, despite this, I will not tell you that you can transform a weak, sickly body into a muscular one in that time and you would not expect me to. Nor will I tell you that you can do it in six months, though I have known men who in six months have made remarkable improvement in their health and strength - so much so that they were almost unrecognizable compared with a few short months before.

But if you pin me down to hard promises, I will make you one. With my hand on my heart I will tell you that if you have never exercised before, in one week you will feel the difference. You will know that something tremendous is happening. In one month you will not only feel the difference, you will see it. Your muscles will have become hard and firm. You will no longer become breathless when you run for a bus. Your posture will have improved and you will be tingling with new life. People will start beginning to comment on your new appearance, the healthy glow in your cheeks, the sparkle in your eyes.

After six months, if you are underweight, be anything up to 10 pounds heavier, with square shoulders, a chest that is fast growing into a power house and legs that are filled with new spring and vigour. If you are now fat and overweight , you will have taken off a similar amount of dead flab and be sprouting with new muscle and you will have found a seemingly unlimited supply of energy and 'go' that will surprise you and leave your friends gasping.

But the benefits of regular weight training do not end there. In a year you may expect to have doubled your strength, be pressing about 150 pounds and be cleaning and jerking about 200 pounds. In a year you may expect to be raising about 300 pounds in the dead-lift, the fundamental test of a man's power. And remember that, in a year, men have risen from obscurity to become prize winning figures in national physique contests.