I was on the phone with Alwyn Cosgrove this morning (shameless name-drop among fitness cognoscenti) picking his brain on a couple of exercises that I'm putting in my forthcoming piece on 'neglected exercises' for Experience Life magazine (incidentally, if you missed my last one on Feldenkrais--yes, a new obsession of mine--click on the link under "Andrew's Article Archives" at left, or, hey, just click here!) 

Much to my delight and edification, Alwyn is a digressive speaker--meaning that, in addition to whatever information I need for the article, Alwyn drops dozens of off-topic pearls that make great blog fodder, not to mention ample food for thought on all fitness-related matters. 

Alwyn brought up Mike Boyle's recent assertion that conventional squats are pretty much off his roster of useful and effective exercises (I blogged about this last week), and made the point that Bulgarian Split Squats--which Boyle offers as a functional alternative to the back squat--are tough to get excited about.  Yes, they're effective.  They make your legs sore, they're dead-on tough as hell. 

But they aren't...fun. 

Now--are squats 'fun'?  For a gym rat--yes.  When I was a young squirt, it was a kick to be able to load almost 300 pounds on the bar and "squat" it (I use quotes because I imagine that my version of a squat at the time more closely resembled a very red-faced Good Morning exercise).  It is fun to test your limits in that way, fun to see your strength growing by leaps and bounds, fun to challenge yourself.

But even if your Bulgarian Split Squat numbers are impressive--like, say, approaching your body weight--no one really cares.  No one's going to ask you "How much do you BFF, bro?"  It's just not going to happen.  And your numbers are never going to get as impressive as your squat numbers.

Now, this might seem like a minor point, but as I've written in this space before--fun is everything.  Any bozo can write a weight-loss program, but it takes real skill and finesse to write a fat-loss program that people find enjoyable.  Where they don't dread going to the gym.  Where they're not so sore they just don't feel like going back, like, ever.

Why don't more people exercise?  They don't enjoy it.  It's not fun.  A fitness professional's job is to make exercise fun.  Sometimes by sheer force of personality (Todd Durkin is a master of this.  So is Sean Burch.), but equally by dint of skillful programming.  A good program is enjoyable.  It's hard and effective, but it's doable. 

No matter how much science backs a given program, a fitness regimen only works if you do it.

Science is important; fun is essential.