The Lost Concept Of Fun

I've had clients ask me, "Should I start going to the gym?"

My answer: "Do you want to?"

If the answer is yes, and the person is truly going to enjoy the experience of working out, then I absolutely encourage them to do so. However, this isn't the case for a lot of people, and those ones will find traditional exercise grueling and punishing.

20 more laps and you just might have time to get some sleep before sunrise!

Strangely, "exercise" becomes a deliberate, demanding, and labourous feat for us as we grow up. It wasn't always like this, for every one of us, though. As children, we ran, jumped, climbed, and otherwise played to stay active and healthy. And no one had to instruct us to do so! (For the most part.) It wasn't exercise to us, back then; it was just fun.

This concept of fun is, unfortunately, lost to a lot of us during development, possibly in due part to physical education simply not taking a focus on the fun aspect of being active. When a game of tag becomes replaced by laps around the field, for instance, it's not so hard to understand why so many people have a negative emotional view on exercise.

For this reason, I'm not a proponent of someone "making" themselves work out if they do not genuinely enjoy that activity, provided that there's another way that they can exercise and enjoy that instead. And there are TONS of alternatives out there. I have one client in her middle-ages who fills her time with gardening, hiking, line-dancing, and Tai-Chi, and this has definitely kept her fitness level well above average for her age!

So, circling back, if the answer to, "Do you want to?" is, "No," then we options. Is there an activity that you enjoy doing that you didn't realize is already keeping you healthy without having to think about it? Is there a sport you used to do when you were younger that would be fun to take up again? How about something that's brand new and you've been curious about trying for a while?

In this manner, I'm able to promote a great range of better health among my clientele. As they recover from pain, I can encourage them to maintain an active lifestyle to keep them out of pain. And it's much easier to keep individuals adherent to physical activity when they enjoy it!

If you'll excuse me now, I'll be busy putting down the dumbbells and climbing things like I'm 10 again!

I fell. A lot. But I had fun!

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