Meet Dick, he should serve as an inspiration to us all. Dick has been hiking Badger Mountain for years with his son’s black lab (he’s pretty much adopted the dog for himself!) 
I’ve known Dick for almost 20 years and he started hiking Badger Mountain after he had open heart surgery and coronary artery bypass grafts (you can probably see the top of his scar if you look closely). If Dick can work his way up to an almost daily climb of Badger Mountain, that doesn’t leave many of us with reasonable excuses, does it? The important part is to start slow. I saw some newbies up on the hill today (I had to remind them to stay on the trail, I wish people would follow the hiking etiquette guidelines to protect the trails and land, you can read more about them here), the newbies were jogging back down the hill and I can pretty much guarantee they will pay for it with SORE legs tomorrow. That may be enough to keep them off the trail in the future. The key is to start slow, try the Badger Flats Trail or just climb the stairs at the Canyon Trailhead and hike up to the first bench. Then, you can gradually grow from there into a mountain monster like Dick! Go get ’em! You can do it. If you want to read more about making a plan for better health, you can read about it here. If you really want to take control of your lifestyle, check out the Hike Healthy Podcast.
Me on top of Badger Mountain this morning