Will Exercise Take the Place of Just Moving?

Moving matters. It has always mattered, we just didn’t think about it when we were younger. We took it for granted because, hey, we could move any which way we wanted, any time we wanted.

Then came getting older, growing up, becoming an adult with responsibilities. Somehow, we didn’t move as much. Instead, we exercised. That was structured, planned, calendared. But general moving suffered. We had to get a job, which took all our energy. We became taxi’s for the kid’s tuba lessons, swim sessions, and slo-pitch softball practice. We needed a glass of wine and a sit-down at the end of the day. We were tired.

Life continued, we moved even less, we had more nagging aches and pains, and consequently, we stopped exercising. After all, we couldn’t quite make time to go to the gym, where exercise happens, doesn’t it? At the gym, in a structured environment, with other people. Peer pressure exercise. The weather turned cold and rainy; we stopped riding our bikes. Winter walking wasn’t wonderful.

That’s exercise, but life isn’t exercise; it’s movement. Exercise, according to the Medical Dictionary, is physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive for the purpose of conditioning any part of the body. Movement, on the other hand, and according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is an act of changing physical location or position. No plan, no structure, no repetitive actions to solicit conditioning. No thought involved. Basically, just play. Move around. Get up. Sit down. Lay on the floor. Get up. Play with the dog. Once in a while, ride a bike to the grocery store and backpack home your purchase, instead of a 20 mile ride. Wash the car yourself, instead of running it through a car wash all the time. Moving doesn’t have to be painful. Just from my point of view, a 20 mile bike ride would be nothing but painful.

What happened to that silliness from childhood: climbing on monkey bars, jumping rope (remember double dutch?), rolling down grass hills, actually swimming in a pool instead of working on your tan, and skipping for the joy of skipping. Can you still skip?

We weren’t exercising, we were playing. We were moving without the drama of thinking it was exercise.

There is nothing wrong with going to the gym, structured classes, and exercise. Just don’t pretend that that is all you have to do. Don’t think that you get to sit on your butt, hunched over your computer, for the rest of the week. There are 168 hours in a week. If you even exercise a couple of hours a week, that still leaves a lot of hours that you could be moving more.

Getting older is about getting smarter about getting older. Start moving more today. Your aging process has a lot to do with how much you move.

That’s Aging Intelligently.