Hey Everyone, Happy 4th of July !!!
It’s a short post this week. This idea popped into my head, and I just had to get it out. Cheers!
When you hear the word “exercise,” what comes to mind?
The Gym
Yoga Classes
Swimming Laps
Go for a run
Zumba classes (Does anyone do this anymore!)
Notice a pattern emerging? All of these activities have two things in common.
They are location-specific and Time-restricted.
If you are looking to get some exercise today, most of us will default to something like the list above. (Maybe not Zumba.) People are busy, so we need to make time for exercise. Right? Well, that’s what they thought during the industrial revolution.
As we began to cluster into urban areas, we shifted away from “working the land” to “working for the man.”
Living in a densely populated area meant that space was at a premium, and working long hours meant that time was scarce. Eventually, it became clear that this new arrangement was detrimental to our well-being, especially for young people—something needed to be done.
So we invented a new problem… Playgrounds.
Hear me out! What if the places we thought were promoting healthy habits were actually limiting us? With their designated equipment and specific locations, playgrounds teach children that physical activity is most appropriate at certain locations and times. Sound familiar? This creates a dependence on a prescribed system, leading to a lack of spontaneity, creativity, and (ultimately) a lack of ownership of our physical activity.
Okay, I have to admit… As a parent, I am part of the problem.
I am busy, and the location-specific nature of a playground, coupled with a scheduled time slot, is a recipe for keeping kids occupied. The convenience is undeniable, but playgrounds are like mac and cheese. They come prepackaged, are readily available, and kids like it. But seriously, it's processed food. Mac and cheese is easy, but we don’t want our kids to think that is what good nutrition looks like. With playgrounds, we have distilled physical activity into a specific time and place for the sake of convenience, but we will pay the price in the future.
It's a lesson that kids internalize and carry into adulthood.
As we grow older, we default to the idea that to engage in physical activity, we need to go someplace, like a gym or fitness center, to get the exercise we need. This isn’t true, of course. We can (and do) get exercise anywhere and everywhere. We just don’t think of it that way. Simply walking around is a good exercise if you do it enough. If you want to make progress toward your overall fitness, prioritize walking instead of scheduling an hour of your day to go to the gym. (Which we statistically don’t go to!) Don’t get me wrong, the gym is great, but it's not “The” place to exercise. It's just “A” place to exercise.
Let’s rethink how we approach physical activity and create a world where fitness can be found everywhere.
Clearly, we are not going to yank out all the playgrounds, there is still some value there. However, by encouraging physical activity outside these prescribed systems, we can help children develop a more flexible and creative approach to fitness, which leads to more active and healthy adults. Let's break free from the playground mentality and embrace the idea that fitness is part of how we LIVE.
And Hey… If Zumba is your thing, that’s fine too!