What counts as exercise? My Wristy Overlord (aka Apple Watch) has one definition, but it is not necessarily the right one. Here are a couple of ways to figure out whether what we are doing is exercise or not:
1. Are we getting sweaty? If we’re not working hard enough to sweat, it’s probably not exercise.
2. Are we getting breathless? This one applies more to cardio and strength training than yoga and other mindfulness-based practices, but it is still a useful indicator. Breathless, in this context, means that we are still capable of speech, but would really have trouble singing.
3. Are we a little sore later? We all have individual pain tolerances, but a good workout will leave us feeling like we did something the next day. If we hate the very idea of stairs, we might have worked a little too hard, but if we can perfectly happily skip up and down them, we might not want to count whatever we did as exercise.
4. Did we learn something new about our bodies in motion? This one applies more to Pilates and its sibling practices. Creating mobility in our joints, figuring out alignment issues, refining our proprioception (five-dollar word for our sense of where our bodies are in space), and improving our balance are all exercises that unite our bodies and minds. It can be very tiring, too.
As always, I am in favor of all kinds of activity, whether they are technically exercise or not, but we do want to ensure that we get some real workouts in. Go play.
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