Play-Out

Why are we so enamored by the term “work-out”? Are we obsessed with “work” so that it becomes pervasive throughout our entire lives?

What if instead we did our “play-out”? What if we went to the gym with the goal of having fun? Obviously, we see this with folks who do a lot of cross training, and play sports to get their exercise. But, so many folks are trapped in the cycle of slogging. Slogging through an hour on some sort of ergonomic machine or slogging through a circuit of exercises with various machines. GAHHH! HOW DAMN BORING!

CrossFit defines fitness this way:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

So, I love that they chase after variety and intensity – and they encourage folks to play sports – particularly to learn new sports.

What if we called an exercise session a “play-out” and we looked for fun things to do? What if we said I have to go to my "learn-out" and we looked for new sports, new skills to learn?

Agility drills and skills offer a lot of fun.

Drills for Balance and Coordination

Drills for Speed and Agility

Eye-hand coordination stuff can be a hoot. And not everything has to be about grunting and sweating.

Learn to Juggle

Ross at Ross Traing has an interesting article about Juggling particularly about the mental benefits of learning new skills.

Of course places like Brand X, and HardCore Kids know that it has to be fun for kids to want to come back -- why do adults make exercise such a vitamin pill?

Interestingly Jim Baker of CrossFit makes the point that in coaching elderly people you have to remind them of seemingly simple neuromuscular activities, how to crawl, how to get up from a kneeling position -- they have to become child like to retain their youth.

Of course, now I have to take my own medicine.