running up stairs

I was bounding up three flights of stairs the other day and my young son asked me why we weren’t taking the elevator like some other folks we passed in the lobby. My spontaneous response was “Because we are ‘stairs people’ not ‘elevator people’.”

Later I thought about what that meant. It meant that exercise was an integral part of our lives, that we enjoyed moving, so much so that we looked for small opportunities throughout our days to use our bodies, to keep them in motion, to keep the blood circulating, to keep the muscles active. Not so much because it burned calories (weight management is 80% portion control and nutrition awareness, only 20% or so exercise) but because our bodies are built to move, because it just feels good.

Numerous studies exist on the vital importance of exercise to both physical and mental health both in terms of 1) cardio and strength training AND 2) simple movement; the importance of getting up from your desk every hour or so and moving around for a few minutes.

Closing Quotes:

“Movement energizes.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

“Movement is the song of the body.” – Vanda Scaravelli

“To move is to live. To live is to move.” – Toni Sorenson

“We see in order to move; we move in order to see.” – William Gibson

“To me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.” – Jerry Seinfeld

“Movement is medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional, and mental state.” – Carol Welch

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier