Guilt-Free Exercise
I think the “Freedom to Ignore” was missing in the Bill of Rights. There are far too many “shoulds” in our modern society that tell you how you must think and act. I don’t propose to be yet another “oughtta” voice. Unacted upon oughtta’s lead to guilt, which leads to mental health issues. Perhaps it is in the Bill only in spirit, but we need the “Right to Ignore.”
I subscribe to our Western philosophy in which we generally decide what we will do by highly individualistic reasoning, as opposed to slavish adherence to contemporary culture that heaps guilt upon our habits and, for that matter, our being. It is only for the purpose of making an informed decision, and that purpose only, that I bring up exercise today.
It begins with the (prescient?) ad above from the early 1960s that was produced for President John F. Kennedy’s exercise program. John F. Kennedy said that “physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”
Concerned mostly about the health of children, President Kennedy established his U.S. Physical Fitness Program. In 1963, it captured the imagination of nine-year-old Californian, Jack Chase who wrote to the president saying he wanted to be physically fit “because I know a strong boy makes a strong man and a strong man makes a strong country.” Unfortunately, it didn’t last as today over 30 percent of teens are disqualified for military service because they are obese.
It’s true that diet is more important than exercise for weight, but that doesn’t discount exercise as a necessary component for being healthy. For weight issues, diet is around 80 percent and exercise 20 percent of the solution.
A new study reported in frontiers in Sports and Active Living looks at multiple benefits of three different types of exercises: 1) resistance training (i.e., weight lifting), 2) aerobic training, and 3) a combination of both. The authors put 137 people, ages 38 to 60 into the three exercise groups for 8 months.
They were looking for two things: how their health improved and what they felt about their bodies after the programs. They already knew that there was plenty of evidence that exercise generally helped with both.
For example, the federal Physical Activity Guidelines Committee report says that participation in exercise:
reduces weight gain, and risk of heart attacks, diabetes and some cancers; and,
reduces the risk of dying overall
But it also makes you feel better about your body, which makes you both less depressed and less anxious. Feeling better immediately about yourself is an excellent motivator.
An added bonus comes from a researcher at the University of Virginia who recently foundthat exercise helps reduce deaths from COVID-19.
What the researchers in the frontiers really wanted to know is which of the three kinds of exercise is best at improving health and enhancing body confidence. Not surprisingly, it is a combination of weightlifting and aerobics. I would add, and I’m sure the researchers would as well, that you have to start with some warm-up exercise (like 5 minutes on a stationary bike) and end with stretching. As you get older, you probably also will want to try some balance exercises as well.
There is plenty of research to suggest that none of this needs to take a lot of time and virtually every time you move can count.
Having said all of that, let’s just assume you can establish your own Freedom to ignore all of this. Actually, exercising your Freedom to Ignore may be more important than physical exercise given all of the high pressure oughtta’s we are besieged with every minute. This is just, hopefully, somewhat interesting and not meant to harass the harried.