Healthy Living Principle #6: Play!

Courtesy of Laura PappasThe next part of my Healthy Principle series addresses Play – to revisit the previous posts you can read about Principles 1:Get Healthy, 2:Eat More Vegetables, 3:Think Seasonally, 4:Kick the Sugar, and 5: Eat More Fat.

Have you ever thought about why when you become an adult you stop playing?  There is no more “kids table”, you don’t have recess or play dates.  Instead, you go to work, come home, cook, clean, diligently go to the gym, etc., but you don’t find yourself saying that you’re going to go “play” any more unless you are playing a sport.  We as a society need to re-incorporate play into our lives to make us happier and healthier.  Stop “haning out” with your friends and go play with them instead!  Do something active, fun, and freeing instead of sitting around or meeting for a meal or drink every time you see someone.   If you have kids, play with them!  We recently took my niece (20 months) and nephew (about 3 1/2) to a playground near their house.  They were so excited that they were doing everything in their power to unbuckle and get out of the car seat and onto the playground as quickly as they could.  Their excitement was contagious and both my husband and I were climbing, sliding, and crawling right along with them on the jungle gym.  This made me realize how important incorporating play into our lives is.  When we give ourselves the time to play, it helps to free yourself and allow yourself to have fun while exercising.

Courtesy of Laura PappasAfter we left the jungle gym, we went to a large expanse of open grass – I don’t know about you guys but when I see a big open field it makes me want to run across it.  And you know what, that’s exactly what we did!  One of our favorite things to do with my nephew is to race – it's play racing, of course.  My husband taught him how to line up like he’s on the starting block at the track, and my nephew crouches down and puts one finger (just one finger or it’s wrong and you can’t race) and then we say 3, 2 ,1 go and we race! It's cool and fun to watch him laugh and enjoy racing and he’s getting pretty fast. We each win a race- sometimes he does, sometimes I do, but that's not the point because we both had fun, exercised and spent quality time together, which always makes for a healthier day.  

Courtesy of Laura PappasMy challenge to you is to incorporate some more time to play in your life. It doesn’t have to be running around outside, but find something that is fun, stress free, and enjoyable.  When you have the urge to do something silly, like jump in a leaf pile, do a cartwheel in a field, or race to the top of the hill and celebrate – DO IT!  I think the current expert on the Primal Play front is Mark Sisson – he’s done quite a few posts and write ups on the importance of playing and how to incorporate it into your life.  For more information and some additional ideas check out his Definitive Guide to Play.  Another thing that you can do to add more play into your life is to vary your workout – going to the gym doesn’t have to be a chore. You can get exercise by playing a sport or doing something that is class based or something like Crossfit where you can often have workouts where you can incorporate play.

Learning new skills on the rings, practicing hand stand push ups, playing with crazy things like atlas stones (concrete balls varying in weight from 30 to 200 lbs) – our gym has “toys” all over the place like monkey bars, ropes, and a peg board to try to climb up.  I feel like it is play when I’m working on my butterfly kipping pull-ups, swinging around on the rings with the hope that I’ll get a muscle up, or just trying to do new things.  You don’t have to do Crossfit to incorporate play into your workout though. Another great idea is to learn a new sport or get back into one you used to participate in.  There are a lot of leagues for sports like soccer, volleyball, racquetball, etc.  Adding play into your life doesn’t have to be organized or part of a sports team either.  Rather, to add play into your life, you simply have to find ways to act or just be silly every once in awhile.  I think you’ll find that adding more play to your life increases the quality of your life, makes it more fun, reduces your stress, and will help keep you feeling younger – what’s not to like about that?

Learning new skills on the rings, practicing hand stand push ups, playing with crazy things like atlas stones (concrete balls varying in weight from 30 to 200 lbs) – our gym has “toys” all over the place like monkey bars, ropes, and a peg board to try to climb up.  I feel like its play when I’m working on my butterfly kipping pull-ups, swinging around on the rings with the hope that I’ll get a muscle up, or just trying to do new things.  You don’t have to do Crossfit to incorporate play into your workout, another great idea is to learn a new sport or get back into one you used to participate in.  There are a lot of leagues for things like soccer, volleyball, racquetball, etc.  Adding play to your life doesn’t have to be organized or part of a sports team either, to add play into your life  find ways to act or just be silly every once in awhile.  I think you’ll find that adding more play to your life increases the quality of your life, makes it more fun, reduces your stress, and will help keep you feeling younger – what’s not to like about that?

Comments

[Patrick Edmonds]

Great advice! I agree that America takes its exercise way too seriously, and we have lost sight of the fun activities that originally attracted us to exercise.

However, at least for me personally, my body doesn't permit the ability to jump into a pile of leaves or just sprint through an open field. It would be nice to be able to reclaim that youthful zest for horseplay, but I think those days are behind me. Who knows, maybe when I have children...maybe?

Thanks for a different perspective!