Do YOU Really Need to Workout?

Do you ever add a daily habit or stop doing something that was a previous staple in your life without really contemplating whether change was necessary?  The world around you always evolving and changing, but you never really stop to ponder the impact it has on how you live your life.  You sit in the middle of it all either adapting with the evolving world around you, or not, without knowledge of what led you to make the choice you did.  If this sounds like a bunch of crazy talk, just humor me a little and continue.  The other day I got to thinking along these lines about past generations, fitness and how it has evolved drastically.  If you read the title thinking there was a possibility I  would give you an out, telling you that exercise is unnecessary, stop:  that’s not what you are going to get.  Of course you need to move your body.  The real questions are, why do you need to workout and do you need to do it within the confines of our current cultural definition.

See, years ago the majority of people had jobs requiring manual labor.  Currently, the majority of people work in offices.  Jobs that still require manual labor have reduced the physical work required with equipment that eases the workload.  As a farm wife, with harvest getting underway, one example I’m thinking about: equipment that now operates using GPS, it practically drives itself.  The invention of computers and internet has drastically changed the workforce as well.  Not only have our work lives moved from strenuous to sedentary, our every day lives at home have gotten easier, as well. Year after year there is something new taking away what used to require our bodies to do the work. We’ve moved from hauling water from a well to indoor plumbing, hand washing laundry to washers and dryers, and more recently instead of pushing a vacuum some of us actually have robots clean the floor (call me crazy, I have yet to jump on that wagon).  Things as simple as the remote control have made us lazier. You’ve all seen that meme right?  The one that says “Kids today don’t know how easy they have it.  When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpet to change the TV channel.”  Cracks me up every time!  Really though, I don’t think any of us realize how easy we have it or how lazy we have become. 

This past Sunday we had family time; time to relax, watch a movie, play, and read. There was an era not so long ago, our grandparents generation, where leisure was a true luxury.  It wasn’t taken for granted because it wasn’t a daily or even weekly guarantee.  People literally worked from sun up to sun down. Chores were much more than emptying a dishwasher and folding clothing that our washers washed and dryers dried for us.  There was no pizza delivery man when we just didn’t feel like cooking.

I’m super thankful for all of the modern inventions that have given us more hours of leisure and less time working.  But with these inventions and mainstream addition of modern technology, we’ve started paying gyms and personal trainers, buying workout videos and home gyms to help us imitate the manual labor that used to be a part of every day life.  Doing so we also seem to have lost the understanding of why we workout.

I try to imagine one of my grandparents going to a fitness class, doing an insanity workout or showing off their “gains” and it just seems silly.  Why?  Because it was totally unnecessary for them.  Their way of life alone kept their bodies moving.  Not to mention they didn’t have time to worry about remembering to document their lift session with a picture flexing into the mirror or making sure they looked good in a gym selfie. I mean can you actually imagine?!

It may feel as if I’m picking on all of my body building, gym loving friends right now.  I’m not.  You’re all awesome and your muscles are glorious. I’m just trying to reach the people that see what you are doing at the gym and forget there is SO much more to working out than getting and maintaining a great looking body.  I’m trying to throw out a reminder that we work out first, not so we can look good on the outside, but to be great on the inside and this requires us taking an active role in moving our bodies because our daily activities no longer require it.  The reason for making a point to move our bodies at a gym or at home in some fashion every day is to keep our body, the only one we will ever have, healthy.  The rest of it, flexing, looking good, having awesome abs: that’s extra.  That’s a perk for those of us that decide to take working out further than just staying healthy.  Fitness is not only for everyone, it’s a necessity for everyone. 

I think most of us realize the above statements: the real reason for working out, the role it has in keeping our bodies healthy.  But, I also think sometimes we get lost in all the fluff and forget the root of the matter. When we forget working out has a much deeper purpose than all the superficial and that we all need to do it because we no longer do the things our ancestors did just to survive we start letting ourselves off the hook.  Our thought process being, it’s only for people who have “time” or prioritize heavily how they look. Analyzing the purpose gets us back to the the basic reason, the reason we all need fitness, our health.  We were made to me mobile.

So, do you need to work out?  Yes, absolutely.  Unless you are in a job that requires lots of movement and using your body as it was designed to be used.  Do you need to become a cross fit model or do hour long sweat sessions? No. Unless you love it and it makes you happy.  What you need to do, is move.  Go for walks, do some serious yard work, throw down some pushups and planks while you catch your evening TV show, use a fitness app, play (not video games) with your kids, or go to a gym.  Whatever works for you, will work for you. Don’t get discouraged by all the social media muscle posts. You don’t have to look like a body builder to be at your best.  Your version of healthy will likely look completely different than the person next to you.  And that is OK!  Just remember physical fitness, working out, exercise: it doesn’t matter what you call it, what does matter is remembering it’s necessary FOR YOUR HEALTH. 

Blessings,

Rita