Exercise is better when you chose to do it

I love to make sweat angels after a good workout

An interesting write up caught my attention today.  At least with respect to longevity (one of the key components of fitness), choosing to exercise during leisure time is better than physical labor during work.  Maybe the fact that you intend to do exercise for your health makes the actual movements better for your health.  Even crazier, maybe just intending to be healthy and really believing it, will make you healthier regardless if you exercise or not.  In any case, moving your body makes you feel better today and will probably help you live longer and healthier than if you don't move.  I want people to enjoy exercise for what it should be--playtime!  Exercise by doing what you love but find a way to love exercising.  You'll do it more often and it may even enhance the benefits of it.

Play Like a Child for Fitness

Playground for people of all ages

I visited a friend of mine a week ago at his new home in Dallas, TX, and he took me on a tour of his new neighborhood.  The picture above may look like a children's playground but look closer. It's actually an outdoor fitness center designed for adults and children to use for exercise.  My buddy and I ran over to fitness station and did a great routine involving monkey bars, pullups, muscle up progressions, skin-the-cat, bar rolls, parallel bar handwalks, and dips.  This facility is phenomenal because of the wide variety of exercises it allows and because the apparatus is appropriate for people of all heights.  The movements involved the total body and even tested our courage a bit as well as our muscles.  Almost everything we did could be done at most standard playgrounds for children found around the world with a little modification.  You also probably have an outdoor fitness facility near you like this or the ones designed by companies like Fitness Trails NA.

Fitness Trails station fitness circuit in Australia

On the run back, we talked about why is it that "play time" ends with childhood.  Most people never play an organized sport after high school.  Almost all of us think of daily exercise as a chore.  Breathless, sweaty kids running around a field, jumping on a trampoline, climbing on bars, or playing tag wouldn't want to be doing anything else while they're at play.  They are in the moment and they love it! Find some vigorous activity that you like to do and enjoy the sensation of a raised heart rate with sweat pouring down your face while you try to accomplish something physical.

Go out and play!