p.627 „Today the majority of the U.S. population is essentially sedentary, reporting little or no exercise of even low to moderate intensity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1991). The links between such inactivity and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD), as well as other chronic disease states, have been well established with both epidemiological and clinical studies (Bouchard, Shephard, & Stephens, 1994; Bouchard, Shephard, Stephens, Sutton, & McPherson, 1990). Impaired psychological health is also a pandemic problem in the United States, with an estimated 8 to 20 million people (3%–8% of the population) suffering from an affective or depressive disorder (D. R. Brown, 1990; Hatfield & Landers, 1987). As many as 25% of U.S. population suffer from mild to moderate depression, anxiety and/or other indicators of emotional disorders (President’s Commission on Mental Health, 1978). ... Additionally, more than 40% of the adult population are reported as experiencing adverse health effects from stress (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1991). ... The financial and social costs of such levels of physical and psychological ill health are now beginning to be addressed (Shephard, 1990), and are considerable, albeit complex and extremely difficult to quantify.... Considering that physical inactivity has been shown to be an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (National Institute for Health, 1995), and no more than 25% of the population meets the current physical activity–cardiovascular health recommendations (Haskell, 1995), a substantial portion (p.628) of the Klarman (1964) costs could logically be attributed to physical inactivity. In 1980 the cost of mental health care in the United States was estimated at between $19.4 and $24 billion (C.A. Taube & Barrett, 1986). A decade later, this figure had escalated to approximately $148 billion per year with about half of these costs represented by nonsevere levels of mental/emotional disorders like depression and anxiety (National Advisory Mental Health Council, 1993). The aerobics and running boom of the 1970s and 1980s brought the health benefits of exercise into high profile, and today an increasing amount of available scientific information has been accompanied by an ever-growing media focus on the desirability of physical activity and exercise from fitness and health perspectives. Despite this attention and the apparent public acceptance of the mental and physical benefits of exercise, only a relatively small percentage of the population is reported to be active on regular basis (Casperson & Merritt, 1992; Merritt & Casperson, 1992; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1991).”