what ‘counts’ as exercise?
The other day, I (unfortunately) heard a clip from a podcast that reminded me why I do what I do.
There were two people talking about exercise and the one person says (while chuckling)
“walking is great- but DO NOT COUNT THAT AS EXERCISE.”
and then, the host chimes in and says “I’m so glad you said that”
and of course all this was followed by snarky/laughing that would bring back memories of that one childhood bully.
Where I want to go from here- (because I’ve been thinking about this for a few days now)
is how to give you tools to question this line of thinking.
This isn’t the first (nor will it be the last) time you’ll hear someone say “XYZ doesn’t count as exercise”
QUESTION 1.) What is the common agreed upon measurement as to what ‘counts’ as exercise?
I’m going to use a recipe for this example.
Say you need a cup of flour to bake a cake.
You pour what you have into your measuring cup, and it falls half short of a cup. You say to yourself “that will not count as 1 cup b/c it doesn’t hit said mark”
OR, lets say someone is running a 200 Meter race and pulls a muscle half way through. (sorry for the visual)
Until someone carries them to the finish line, they will not finish the race. Their length did not measure up to the 200M mark and will not be counted as 200 Meters.
So using these 2 examples, I have demonstrated that a number has to be followed by a unit of measurement. If I say:
“I’ll give you TWO” You would reply- TWO WHAT?
Two apples or two inches of rope.
The number HAS to be followed by an agreed unit of measurement.
So what are we measuring here?
Intensity? Time? Gradient of a hill?
QUESTION 2: If we were to agree upon a common unit of measurement- what would it be?
does walking for 60 minutes count as exercise?
does walking 7 mph for 15 minutes count as exercise?
does walking at a 6% gradient uphill count as exercise?
What is the measurement that constitutes ‘counting;
and lastly, (for today) I would ask them
QUESTION 3: What do you hope your listeners gain by you offering this information, that walking doesn’t ‘count’?
What I would think they would answer…
“I want them to know that walking doesn’t count so they stop doing it” (this seems unlikely, but you never know)
“I want them to know that walking doesn’t count so they know they have to do more.” (this seems like it would be up their alley since they snickered and laughed afterwards)
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The thing that sticks out to me most about all of this dialogue is that is all comes back to a RIGHT OR A WRONG way. It counts or it doesn’t. This is the RIGHT way to EXERCISE, NOT THAT. and that is the type of thinking we’re trying to remove ourselves from.
