Suddenly, miraculously, Spring woke up over the weekend, and we were treated to the most glorious weather we’ve had in months–sunshine, shirt-sleeve temps, and bird song. I resolved to spend as much of it outdoors as possible.
So we raked leaves. A lot of leaves. For hours.
By bedtime, we were all satisfactorily exhausted, and the backyard had shed its winter blanket. Now I can actually see my feet when I walk around out there, which is good–we only disturbed one snake on Saturday, but even one unseen and stepped-on is more than I care to experience.
The real beauty of the day, though, was the gratification of getting plenty of exercise without making any special effort. I didn’t have to carve out an hour to fit in a workout; I didn’t have to talk myself into getting started, or sticking with it to the end. The physical exertion was just a by-product of the work that I really wanted to get done.
Sometimes the word exercise takes on a life of its own–it looms over us, the most unpleasant, guilt-inducing part of the day, the thing we have to get through in order to enjoy the rest of the day. We bargain with ourselves, twist our schedules inside out, and sacrifice all manner of other priorities, just so we can spend the requisite number of minutes running to nowhere or lifting a pointless item up and down and up and down.
A study came out a couple of months ago that shows that sitting all day shortens life expectancy, even in people who “exercise” regularly; I wrote about it here. It bears repeating, I think: our bodies weren’t meant to sit for a living. We evolved to spend our days in vigorous, and essential, activity.
That intersection, between vigorous and essential, is useful to consider. I find that I have trouble convincing myself to exercise consistently if my only goal is an hour of sweating. If the activity has another purpose–any other purpose–I’m more likely to jump in enthusiastically. Functional exercise (exercise that happens more-or-less unintentionally as I go about my other chores for the day) is vastly more satisfying, and “easier” than the isolated, pointless hour-on-the-elliptical variety.
Raking leaves, shoveling snow, digging up a garden bed, riding a bicycle to the grocery store, walking to a doctor’s appointment–all these things get my heart rate up and work my muscles. Effortless exercise. Sounds good, doesn’t it?