jducoeur

I'm reading a book by Jayne Williams, who calls herself the Slow Fat Triathlete. It's not uncommon for people who write exercise books or articles to talk about how to make your workout fun (do it with friends, do something that feels like a hobby, such as dancing, etc), but she takes it a step back to try to figure out where the perception of physical activity as drudgery comes from. She notes that of the things we're sure our ancient ancestors did (eat, sleep, cover distances on foot, have sex), exercise is the one that a lot of people now shun. She doesn't come up with good answers about why (and amusingly points out that people who would claim that they hate to work hard or stretch or drip with sweat don't mind doing those things when they're connected with sex), but advocates re-framing things so that running/lifting/whatever count as fun, even if you have to rename parts of it, such as calling it a movement adventure instead of a workout.