What is"Exercise"? Pt. 1

This was a topic that came to mind after I had a conversation that was talking about our old school days.

One of the points that was brought up, was how tedious the number of "exercises" we were expected to do. In this context, doing a batch of 40 math problems was considered an exercise.

But in my opinion, the tedious feeling wasn't so much from how hard the work actually was, but because we didn't fully understand what we had to do those exercises, what purpose they actually served.

I can now say that those exercises were for building experience and habits, but I wanted try and see if I could summarize goals for "why" we should exercise.

(If we know why we're doing a task, we'll be more likely to do it.)

To start off, I would consider there to be Two kinds of exercising: Physical Exercises, and Mental Exercises.

Physical Exercises focus on the Body.

There are Three benefits to exercising the body; Strength, Stamina, and Flexibility.

Strength allows us to complete tasks, such as moving heavy objects, but gaining more strength may also make the same tasks easier.

(For extreme example, training with 40 pound weights will make lifting 20 pound objects easier)

In the digital age we are in, there are many jobs (such as writing at a desk) that doesn't require much strength. However, we still want to be able to haul groceries, pick up and hold our children and pets (until their too old), and be able to do any surprise physical labor that may show up around the house.

So if our job doesn't help us maintain a decent level of strength, we should ideally go out of our way to set a routine and maintain it ourselves. (Working with weights is a common strength exercise)

Stamina allows us to do tasks for a longer period of time. It could be something with low physical exertion such as writing, or high physical exertion such as running.

Also because we're in the digital age, there are many jobs that can be done by just sitting. But with more time spent sitting and less time spent on our legs, we may become more Mentally capable to do a single task for long periods of time, but physical day to day tasks (like the hauling groceries and taking care of the kids from above) can get very tiresome very quickly.

When we get tired, we also begin to lose some of our Attention Span (conscious control of thoughts), and make it harder to keep our Train of Thought (ability to process problems).

So once again, if our job doesn't let us maintain a decent amount of stamina, we should try to maintain it in our own time. (Cardio, or other repetitive exercises are good.)

(Side note, Squats can build both Strength and Stamina in your legs.)

Flexibility refers to the range of motion we can move our limbs. Having a certain amount of flexibility isn't really a job requirement, but the reason I brought this up as a separate section, is because a lack of flexibility can lead to injuries when doing physical tasks you aren't used to.

And by flexibility, I mean how pliable your muscles and tendons are. To repeat an example I've heard before, "Muscles are like Rubber Bands, if you don't stretch them regularly, they harden and can possibly break". Now instead of "break", muscles usually strain first, but once again if our job doesn't require much movement, we may need to go out of our way to move ourselves so we don't tighten up so much.

(Leg cramps are the most common pulled muscles, so having some sort of leg stretch during the day can help keep your legs limber and keep blood flowing.)

In Summary: Strength lets us do tasks, Stamina lets us do those tasks longer, and Flexibility lessens the chance of injuring ourselves during those tasks.

And while I would like to talk about those Mental Exercises too, this letter is getting a bit long for my liking (and reading). So I will turn this issue into a Pt. 1 and have Pt. 2 be the next issue, and then I can go more in-depth with examples then.

(I'll put a link here for the next issue once it's released)

So until the next issue, I'd like to thank you once again for peering into the mind of Bradley Oberg!