..."We have doctors to thank for lots of S.B. The advice to always ask a doctor before you (yes, you) start any exercise program is rather self-serving, considering the fact that they are the ones billing for the office visit, and the silliness of insisting that a healthy 35-year-old get a checkup before he starts to lift weights makes one suspicious of the actual purpose. As mentioned earlier, the medical community is famous for equating exercise with running, walking, cycling, and other such monostructural aerobic-pathway activities that are measured by the time spent engaging in them. The pamphlet rack in the waiting room is typically stuffed completely full of references to “20 minutes of exercise a day, 5 days a week,” as if the only way to quantify a stress that leads to an adaptation is with your Polar RS 800fancy watch/heart rate monitor. "
- Mark Rippetoe
