Nobody truly wants to workout. It’s hard. This fact has generated an unhealthy lifestyle for countless individuals all over the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of Americans live a sedentary lifestyle in which they do not engage in regular physical activity. In Minnesota, more than 20% of adults live a sedentary life. This puts them at risk for diseases like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, arthritis and others that have burdened our country for decades.
I want to emphasize that exercise falls within the general definition of physical activity, which, according to one source, is “any intentional movement that expends energy by engaging the skeletal system.” For example, carrying the groceries from your car, shoveling your sidewalk or taking your dog for a walk might not be seen as exercise in the eyes of most people, but they are definitely forms of physical activity.
Fun fact: walking 10,000 steps in one day burns roughly 400-600 calories. Another fact: the average American walks only 3,000-4,000 steps a day. Living a sedentary lifestyle, not moving your body or expending any energy, is a sure way for your health to deteriorate and to put yourself at risk of diseases.
How does one combat a sedentary lifestyle? By engaging in physical activity that you truly enjoy and can fall in love with. Very often, people think that in order to be healthy, they have to go to the gym three to four times a week and lift weights until they can’t move their arms.
But often, new gym-goers are easily discouraged once they see the 6-foot-4, 230-pound bodybuilder repping 405 pounds on the bench press. You can’t just tell those novices, “Well just ignore him.” It’s impossible to look away! That’s why it’s important to remember that you do not have to go to a gym in order to be healthy.
Sure, if your goal is to put on 5-8 pounds of lean muscle mass, a professional would likely tell you that you have to go to the gym four to six times a week, targeting each muscle group a minimum of twice a week, and make various lifestyle changes in order to achieve that goal. But if someone just wants to be healthy, that is a different story.
Fitness is all goal oriented and subjective to whatever that goal is. The principle of specificity refers to your body adapting to whatever form of exercise you’re engaging in. In other words, if your goal is to improve your cardiovascular health, you’ll turn to distance running or biking or swimming. What you won’t do is train your chest four times a week, benching as heavy a weight as possible. Your training will be specific towards the goal you are focused on.
The next step after determining your goal is to choose the form of physical activity that not only supports said goal, but is desirable to you. If you don’t like running, try jogging. If you don’t like jogging, try incline walking. If you don’t like that, try pickleball! What matters most is that you’re moving your body with the intention of staying healthy. Finding a leisure activity that you want to engage in is the first step in transforming your life, and lowering the risk of diseases such as obesity, sarcopenia, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, cancer and so on.
I’m sure to some it is a relief to hear that you do not have to go to a gym in order to be fit.
There are countless activities one could engage in in order to remain healthy. Yoga, gardening, hiking, dancing, ping pong, disc golf, paintball, fencing, cornhole or playing with your kid. The list is endless and inviting. Finding what form of physical activity makes you happy will also make you healthy.
Joe Marx is a sophomore studying kinesiology at the University of Minnesota.