Get Ready For Summer With Recreational Exercise

Remember back in childhood how good it felt to run outside and play after sitting in school all day – the  freedom to run, jump, maybe even hop on a bicycle and go for a ride?

So you can’t do that as an adult in the same way, but you can relive the movement, freedom and exhilaration of it as you take a pleasure walk, lifting your chin to raise (and open) your diaphragm, with a deep breathing pattern that exchanges stale, negative air for the fresh, positive air that will stimulate your circulation and make it possible to quicken your pace.

Or, if you have a bicycle machine in your house that doesn’t get used much, place a TV in front of it, and hop on the “bike” to watch a show.  As you pedal, use the muscle action through your whole torso instead of just using the legs, as you pump the wheels in a standing position to “ride away.”  The legs begin a mechanical locomotion pattern; the trunk and arms become involved in moving and controlling the bicycle.  This involvement is muscular teamwork operating one unifying line through the whole body. It’s as though your feet are walking on the pedals as they push down. 

If you were on a real bike outside as the feet push down, the power from the muscles of your thighs and lower trunk would be moving the bicycle forward in space.  You’d then have horizontal movement as a result of vertical effort. You and the bicycle become one, moving together with alternating activity and rest – a healthy inhalation/exhalation process plus good muscular usage through the torso.

Good exercise? YES  Better yet is to get on a real bike and go for a recreational ride, but that’s not always possible for everyone, so USE that old bicycle machine, and just pretend it’s a real bike, but in your zeal, don’t get so carried away that you have an accident.

Exercise Philosophy

In case you’re interested in just what kind of exercise I really represent and I hope you are by now if you’ve been reading these blogs – I’m going to be more specific.

You already know that I believe exercise is a natural, daily, body instinct equal to eating and sleeping, for you to, (and you alone), take responsibility for and act on. It’s primal, and once you understand that, you don’t really need any external motivation from other people. All you need to do is satisfy that primal instinct. What I’m really saying is that you can make up your own daily exercise routine.

It’s sort of a yin-yang, natural balance thing; when you’re hungry you instinctively take in the food your body needs to supply the power needed to function. And at the end of the day when that balanced process has been completed, the body sends its signal that it’s time to sleep, and you do.

So where do I fit in to this process as an exercise teacher? The kind of exercise I teach is what you might see in a dance studio instead of a gym – slow, continuous stretching from the inside of the body, done to classical music. I learned the base of it from my training in classical dance.

The difference between me and the rest of the exercise personalities is that I’m coming from the world of the artist, which is open and creative. The exercise scientists are coming from a scientific base, which is more rule rigid and finite, without emotional interaction except the striving for enhanced athletic performance.

I don’t mean to steer you away from the sport conditioning of exercise science which is excellent training for competitive sport; I’m just trying to help the people who don’t relate to that exercise style. The artist (dancer) is in touch with the expression of the individual person within the body as opposed to the scientist who equates fitness to athletic sport proficiency.

I’m like the one who comes to an aged person with gait and balance problems and says, “Let’s sit down and listen to some Mozart and then I’ll take your hand and we’ll go for a walk while I teach you to relax and focus, and find your center balance,” rather than the physical therapist who would have the person do leg squats to strengthen the legs while he or she holds on to the back of a chair.  Strong legs will not keep a person fom falling if there’s no sense of balance in the head and inner body.

My next blog will start a series of exercises you can do to get ready for summer and all the wonderful opportunities we have to indulge in recreational, outdoor exercise and sport. And there will be simple illustrations to show how to prepare.

Appetite & Hunger

Even though eat, sleep and move are the three basic things we need to do every day for good health, my concentration is on exercise. People do ask me about my eating and sleeping habits though since I’m in such good health for my age.

My routine is quite simple. I’m up by 6:00 and in bed by 10:00. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner – have honey on my toast every morning, a cookie after lunch, and dessert every night after dinner. I also have a glass of wine with dinner every other night and some vodka on the weekend. I cook from scratch daily – meatless every other night – don’t eat between meals, don’t eat junk or fast food.

Every morning I exercise before dressing (after my breakfast has settled and I’ve read the newspaper). The exercise I do gives me enough energy to get through my nine to five workday. I need my “three squares per day” because I’m very active.

What works for me though is not necessarily what everyone else should do. We’re all different and have different lifestyles. Get to know your own body and listen to it. After all, you’re the only one living in it. I’m sure it already lets you know what foods you prefer and those that disagree with your digestion. Once you start paying attention to what your body tells you it will also let you know the quantities of food you should be eating.

Here’s the rule to follow: Don’t eat more per day than you can burn off in a day.
- and memorize the definitions of the following two words -

APPETITE: a sensation based on previous experience of eating foods which are pleasant to the taste.

HUNGER: the need and desire to eat that the body feels when it hasn’t had food for some time.

(People who overeat and become too heavy might have the two words
confused!)