Exercise is wonderful

 “Exercise is wonderful," said Louis.

"I could sit and watch it all day.”

― Larry Niven, Ringworld

I’ve gotta admit that I do NOT love to exercise. We are finally enjoying warming temperatures where I live, which at least helps makes it somewhat easier to exercise: I enjoy moving more when I’m outdoors. To aid in motivation, in this month’s wellness email I offer a few words on exercise (I know I talk about this often – most likely because I need the reminders).

I keep meaning to keep these posts short, and then I fall into the trap of thinking that more info is better than less; so please, just scan the parts that appeal and let go of the rest.These particular aids and benefits are ones that may be newer “discoveries” so it's possible you'll find something you haven't heard before.

Enjoy. And may you move as you relish spring and pursue wellness.

“I’d gone with my usual option. I was running through long tunnels filled with demons and monsters and nightmares, because it was easier than going to the gym.” 

― Jim Butcher, Skin Game

Aids to exercise (in addition to being outside while exercising).

-          TALK POSITIVELY TO YOURSELF

In a small randomized study of 24 participants, researchers at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, along with other institutions, found that folks who used encouraging self-talk, such as “You’re doing well” and “Push through this” during a high-intensity cycling session pedaled longer before reaching fatigue and had a lower rate of perceived exertion than those who said nothing or, worse, were negative on their rides.

“Exercise is a great leveler. It doesn't matter how rich you are, you can't just buy your way into a great body. You have to do the work. I find that comforting. It's one of the few things in life where we're all on a level playing field.”
― Vinnie Tortorich

-          MAKE MUSIC

Producing tunes instead of simply listening may make your body more efficient: music may not simply distract us but also reduce the effort (recall chain-gang chants, military cadences).

In a small study doneby Thomas Fritz, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, and other research facilities, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences, USA , half of the study participants passively listened to music during exercise, and half made music while working out by using software that interactively turned their movements into tunes (the music would start when participants used the machines). The music makers used less oxygen during their routine – a measure of exertion – and they also felt they were working less hard than those who just listened.

Music production may make exercise easier by activating so-called emotional motor control, posits Fritz, the study’s lead researcher. Emotional motor control is responsible for spontaneous actions such as a genuine smile; deliberate motor control, in contrast, implements purposeful action such as a fake smile. To activate this more efficient system (of emotional motor control responsible for spontaneous actions), Fritz says, try singing along or pumping iron in rhythm with the tunes in your exercise playlist. [Dee's note: to say it another way - look for whatever is good or enjoyable about whatever you might be engaged in, including exercise!]

“Listening to the music while stretching her body close to its limit, she was able to attain a mysterious calm. She was simultaneously the torturer and the tortured, the forcer and the forced. This sense of inner-directed self-sufficiency was what she wanted most of all. It gave her deep solace.”
― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Benefits of exercise, possibly surprising…

-          YOUNGER SKIN

This New York Times Well article, says

“Exercise not only appears to keep skin younger, it may also even reverse skin aging in people who start exercising late in life… researchers at McMaster University in Ontario… found that after age 40, the men and women who exercised frequently had markedly thinner, healthier stratum corneums and thicker dermis layers in their skin. Their skin was much closer in composition to that of the 20- and 30-year-olds than to that of others of their age, even if they were past age 65.”

Note that there is no evidence that exercise reverses wrinkling and other damage from the sun, so we still need to wear sunscreen if exercising exposes us to the sun.

 “To resist the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart. And to keep these in parallel vigor one must exercise, study, and love.” 

― Charles-Victor De Bonstettin

-          INCREASED CREATIVITY 

As reported in another NY Times well blog, Dr. Oppezzo and researchers at Stanford University had undergrad students complete creativity tests (such as coming up with alternative uses for button or other common objects, for about eight minutes), either while sitting at a desk or waking on a treadmill at an easy self-selected pace. Their findings, published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition showed that for almost every student, creativity increased substantially when they walked. Most were able to generate about 60 percent more uses for an object, and the ideas were both “novel and appropriate.” They had another group of students sit for two consecutive sessions of test-taking and subsequently walk for about eight minutes while tossing out ideas for object re-use, then sit and repeat the test. Again, walking markedly improved people’s ability to generate creative ideas, even when they sat down after the walk. In that case, the volunteers who had walked produced significantly more and subjectively better ideas than in their pre-exercise testing period.

Again, walking markedly improved people’s ability to generate creative ideas, even when they sat down after the walk. In that case, the volunteers who had walked produced significantly more and subjectively better ideas than in their pre-exercise testing period.

Dr. Oppezzo observes, “It may be that walking improves mood” as its primary effect, she said, and creativity blooms more easily within a buoyed-up mind. Or walking may divert energy that otherwise would be devoted, intentionally or not, to damping down wild, creative thought, she said. “I think it’s possible that walking may allow the brain to break through” some of its own, hyper-rational filters.

"But he said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you and make your way successful." - Genesis 24:40a

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, Or, How to Philosophize With the Hammer

 ~~~

“If there had been an exercise I'd liked, would I have gotten this big in the first place?”
― Jennifer Weiner