Get some play!

“Do you remember how good you always felt and how much energy you always had as a child?  Ever notice how resilient kids are?  Do you think we start slowing down and getting injured because we grow old?  Or, do you think maybe we grow old and start slowing down because we stop playing?”

-Tim Anderson from “Becoming Bulletproof”

You know, despite being woefully unathletic as a kid, no one ever had to try to convince me to go outside and play.  I grew up with a creek right behind my house, and I would routinely climb, crawl, scale, and jump my way from one end to the other.  In fact, I remember timing myself on more than one occasion and was able to get through a pretty sizable chunk of it in 10 minutes.  My friends and I used to play Batman, Star Wars, and other geeky things in the creek because video game systems all pretty much sucked until Nintendo 64 came out and turned video game playing from a nerd activity to a mainstream hobby.  The creek probably would have become a thing of the past for me if my parents hadn’t wisely forbidden me to own a video game system.  

This isn’t the only thing I did.  Back when PE involved hard work, we played every game or sport known to man, and a few our grandfatherly gym teacher, Mr. Mosser, probably just made up.  Every day before gym started, he would say “one time around the school.  GO!” and we all ran – no one walked.  We had pullup contests, did pushups (Mr. Mosser asked me to demo clapping pushups to the class once, one of the few cool physical things I could do as a youngster).  And that wasn’t all.  I would challenge my friends to races, play games of hide-and- seek that spanned our sprawling neighborhood, do summersaults, cartwheels, and round-offs all over the place and ride my bike until all I wanted to do was eat and fall asleep.  

 

Fifth Graders: If you can't be smarter than them, at least don't let them show you up at anything else.

Does any of this sound familiar?  Does any of it make you wistful for being a kid again?  If it doesn’t, it should.  When it comes to physical things, kids always seem to have it right – from how they pick things up to how they love to play any chance they get.  It’s all that movement that seems to lock in the right and wrong way to do things.  As much as I love lifting heavy things, I look back now and realize that the biggest folly I’ve made has been in not playing enough – be it just crawling or climbing or trying out different sports.  Playing just seems to nail a lot of the “in-between” strength that some of our favorite lifts leave behind – which is exactly why I’ve started to include it in my routines.

And you know what I love most about it?  The absolute lack of pressure to perform or complete anything.  The lack of a defined goal.  You’re not embarking on a six- or eight-week plan.  You’re just playing!  Don’t get me wrong, I love setting and surpassing goals, but it’s nice every once in a while to stop and just do something for the hell of it.  Not only will it help you move better and improve your body awareness, but for me, it really clears my mind and lets me just enjoy moving around. 

Since most of you have forgotten how to play or what that even means, take some suggestions from Tim Anderson and Mike McNiff from their awesome book Becoming Bulletproof – play dodgeball, go for a  walk or run, learn how to run sprints, climb, crawl, roll, jump, etc.  Just 15-30 minutes 2-3 times a week.  That’s it!  Take the time to move, act like a kid, and play!  You’ll be amazed at how good you feel.  Here’s one of my new favorite “playtime” sessions:

Crabwalk backward up a hill – jog down

Bear crawl backward up a hill – jog down

Repeat a few times

Crabwalk sideways and in zig-zags for distance – reverse course

Bear crawl sideways and in zig-zags for distance – reverse

This is fun to do on your fists for an added challenge (or if your noodle-thin wrists scream for mercy when you crawl)

If you want to eat as well as you feel, check out this recipe.  But whatever you do, DON’T TELL YOUR FRIENDS, and for god’s sake, don’t share it!!

Until next time, lift heavy and eat hearty!

Aleks