Fitness After 5 P.M

Work is supposed to be over when you get home time to relax and be with the family, to stretch out and catch up on the day, to unwind, not switch directly from your work clothes into a sweat suit.

True. But remember: lf you’ve already been nibbling away at your DER (Daily Exercise Requirements) in some of the ways recommended in this book, you won’t need that sweat suit. If you’ve already managed to squeeze in two 10-minute cardiovascular workouts, in fact — one in the morning and one at lunch — you can consider anything else you do for the day to be icing on the cake.

Take the case of Paul. He gets a short walk in the morning and another one at noon; thus, his precious evening hours are open for any number of highly pleasurable activities involving his family or requiring his services around the house or yard.

“Some nights I’ll take a walk with the kids to the park and get some strength exercise messing around with them on the jungle gym,” he says. “Other nights I’ll do something physical in the way of yard work, such as clipping hedges, working in the garden, cutting some grass, that kind of thing. Or if the weather’s bad, I have a set of weights I’ll push around for a while in the basement, I’ve gotten myself in the habit of always doing at least something, even if it’s just helping my wife with some of the housework. She also works, so she really appreciates any help she can get.”

Atta boy, Paul! Your fitness program certainly gets high marks.
“But best of all is the difference it’s all made,” Paul hastens to add. “What I’m doing hardly feels like any sort of structured program, yet I’ve lost close to 20 pounds in the past year, and I seem to have so much more energy.”

Aha! Therein lies the secret of fitness when approached in the easy-does-it style I’ve been recommending since the opening pages of this book. When pursued at a pace the body finds comfortable, fitness begins fitness. The more active you are, the more active you will feel like being and your fitness level will spiral upward in an exponential fashion.

“I used to get home from work and head straight for the TV because I felt too pooped to do much else,” Paul confesses. “But now I get home champing at the bit to get into one of the projects I’ve got going.”

Handy and healthy. That’s Paul. You don’t have to be a Bob Vila to burn calories pleasantly and productively in your leisure hours, though. Consider joan, a 36 year-old working mother of two, who also gets her evening exercise in fun and meaningful ways but wouldn’t know a dovetail joint if it flew in her face.

“Two nights a week in the summer,” says joan, “I’m the manager of a softball team, which one of my daughters plays on, and I make sure to get plenty of exercise during our warm»ups for the games. We also practice on Saturdays, so I get another workout there. We all do stretching exercises together, and some running. It adds up to a pretty good workout.”

With the turning of the leaves, Joan turns to coaching soccer, in which both her daughters participate. “I certainly get my cardiovascular workouts there,” she says. “And not just during practices. Even during the games, I find myself running up and down the field to follow the play.”

In the winter, Joan’s fitness turns to coaching basketball. “I just love working with kids,” she says. “They have such energy, and it’s contagious. I find myself doing all this strenuous exercise, but it doesn’t feel like exercise. I guess it’s because I get so involved.”