I’m sitting in a coffee shop across from a MASSIVE health club, and as I watch the people scurry in and out of this gigantic big-box style fitness chain, I can’t help but wonder..If exercise didn’t work, would we still do it?
Put another way – if there was absolutely no physiological reward to weight training or structured exercise (like cardio or fitness classes) I doubt any of us would even bother…
Sure, we’ve learned to enjoy exercise, but I think that the root of this enjoyment is knowing (or thinking) we are doing something that is healthy, and that it will improve the way we look and feel.
In fact I am hard pressed to think of any form of structured exercise that is not ‘end result’ oriented.
I can only think of two things we do for no reward..
We walk – because humans wonder by nature. Throw a bunch of grade school kids into a field and see what happens…they just wonder off, exploring things or sometimes just walking for the sake of walking.
And we dance (if we’re not too self-conscious). Throw a bunch of children into a gymnasium, turn on some music and watch what happens.
From watching my daughter I beleive that wondering aimlessly combined with dancing and unstructured play is the root of our innate calorie burning abiltity…Everything else is a learned skill.
Based on this I am starting to think that many of us would benefit from limiting our weight training and structured cardio to the MINUMUM we need to get the effect we desire, and then fill the rest of our time with walking, and unstructured play…
The bottom line – I think walking around your neighborhood is far better for you then walking inside on a treadmill…and most forms of dancing are probably just as good as interval training, if not better.
I still love weight training, but I think we should be striving to get the best returns from the least amount of work, rather than just working out as much as possible and hoping we hit our target.
Balance is the new healthy
BP
PS- Here is a great story about a trainer who experimented with Eat Stop Eat for one month..you can read about her results HERE
