It’s the Active, Not the Activity

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

(CC) Tobyotter/Flickr

I suppose my first foray into the world of being active was working my way down the birth canal with a little pushing from my mother. After that, as I gained my initial independence, most of my activities were solitary. I explored the world by walking, running and, with some encouragement from my father, on my first bike or more accurately, trike. It wasn’t, for the most part, until I began school that I became more involved in group physical activities and sports. I was far from a dominating athlete, but I was competent enough to be part of the team while enjoying several sports.

In my previous column, commenter Janis brought up an interesting point about what Nader was suggesting. What people have usually tended to do, as they went from that world of required or sponsored sports activities that were part of our educational process, or in the playground with the other kids in the neighborhood when we were not in school, was just stop being active.

Did you know that Gallup polls have shown that over 50 percent of Americans (and the real number is probably higher) do not do any significant physical activity? Janis suggested that because we were mainly involved in team sports, once the team was disbanded into the many areas of the workforce, our individual activity level drops dramatically.

As Janis said, “I wish more people… would explicitly state as a permanent and dominant message about physical activity that it doesn’t have to be a team or contact sport. Walk-Hike-Run (Bike) by yourself. You do not need rules, balls, points, special equipment… or to be some sort of super type-AAA jocko to do this. You can be a nerd. You can be a hermit. You can be an introvert. You can have hated gym class. You can be a brain. You can be the ‘before’ picture in the Charles Atlas commercials. You can be anything.”

When I look at my own path, as I got older, even though I did maintain several group activities, as my peers aged, there were less and less of them that participated in group sports. As this happened, I did tend to find some sports, such as tennis, that did not require more than two people, and one which only required one horse, but the vast majority of my activities took place with only one consenting adult.

Interestingly enough, I found myself returning to my earliest ways of being active as that child: the walker, the runner and the biker whose curiosity had first led him to explore the world. I found that not only was there still a lot of world to explore, but I also discovered that these activities allowed me to explore more of my own inner world as my mind became very active during these exercise periods.

I’ve planned every elective surgery, and realized how to solve almost every problem that I’ve faced while running. I’ve read about how our brains become more active after 30-45 minutes of continuous aerobic activity. Studies have demonstrated more individual brain hemispheric activity as well as additional cross callosum activity between the two hemispheres. Rather than being right or left brained, we become of one brain!

Because of the way I have lived, I never really thought about how for others, as Janis discussed, being active fell away because they no longer had group activities to fall back on, force them or to motivate them. As with many other healthy things in life, being active is so important to our general wellness. Look for ways to be active without the crutch of the group.

Janis continued, “I really would like to see a physical fitness campaign that said that flat-out. No pictures of anyone except runners, walkers, hikers, bikers. Show a biker on a river path someplace with the caption: ‘Hated gym class? So did I.’ and the tagline ‘Fitness is for everyone. Get up and move.”‘

I encourage everyone to make Janis’ mantra, “Fitness is for everyone. Get up and move,” your mantra.

If only one person says it, the world may think they are sick and not pay attention.

If two people say it, the world may think they are confused and still not do it.

But if three people say it, the world may start to think it’s an organization.

And if 50 people say it — can you imagine 50 people saying it — then the world may think it’s a movement, the Janis’ “Fitness is for everyone. Get up and move,” movement.

And maybe then the world may stop saying it and just start doing it!

(Thank you, Janis!)

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It’s the Active, Not the Activity is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Source: http://calorielab.com/news/2012/11/30/its-the-active-not-the-activity/

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