Are Athletes The Only Ones Who Are Fit?

How did the sport conditioning of exercise science become the dominant prescription for exercise anyway?

Maybe we could blame it on the ancient Greeks. They realized that athletes were stronger and healthier than the non-athletes, and therefore equated their training with fitness, and the concept has continued, even though history also tells us that people have always expressed themselves singly or in groups, through dance, and dance is movement that contributes to good health.

As a matter of fact, in many countries today – i.e. Iceland and the Scandinavian countries – a popular form of exercise for the 50+ group is social dancing. But in this country, the exercise scientists, who are trained in sport conditioning, are the official spokespeople for the subject of exercise.

When General Eisenhower became president he started The President’s Council on Fitness because he’d been concerned by the number of young men in poor condition entering the armed forces in WWII. President Kennedy strengthened the Council by appointing dance trained Bonnie Prudden as its director. But when President Johnson took over he changed the name to The President’s Council on Fitness and Sports, which has been headed by football coaches, astronauts and sports superstars as fitness models ever since. Athleticism is still the epitome of fitness.

Oh well, The President’s Council on Fitness is at least trying to do something about the state of our health, but don’t you wish they’d pay more attention to the rest of us?

Next week: Some novel ways to get in good enough shape to start
exercising.

Exercise – A Natural Instinct

More about exercise as a natural, daily instinct equal to eating and
sleeping …

Watch babies, toddlers and your pet animals exercise every day, instinctively. The babies kick and squirm, the toddlers run, jump and move around after periods of inactivity, and the animals stretch in various directions after languid dozing.

Why doesn’t everybody else?

It’s because the exercise instinct becomes inadvertently repressed when we go to school and have to sit, learn, and become part of organized society. It didn’t used to be so hard to react to the natural need to move when schools still had recess and gym, and there was no TV at home, nor loads of busy-work homework to do, leaving no time to go out and play Kick the Can.

Life has gotten more complicated now.

BUT, haven’t you noticed that we still have time to eat and sleep? It’s only the movement instinct that’s disappeared. It’s easy to blame TV, the trans-fats in fast food places, oversized soft drinks etc. etc., but those are just the scapegoats.

WELL, forget everything you know about the subject of exercise for a few minutes, erase the sweaty work-out images you conjure up at the sound of the E word, and replace them with a daily mantra – EAT, SLEEP, MOVE.

At age 80, I’m in a “giving back” mood and I want to help you reclaim that natural, daily instinct.

The first step is to remind yourself that you’re the only one living in your body. If you have the right to eat spinach instead of broccoli, go to sleep at 10:00 instead of 10:30, you have the right to do whatever exercise you and your body choose to do – as long as you do SOME KIND OF MOVEMENT every day. And if you can’t find some daily movement that fits your lifestyle, start singing every morning. It’s wonderful exercise! Why else don’t overweight opera singers die early of heart attacks?

Next week: How did the sport conditioning of exercise science become the dominant prescription for exercise anyway?