Exercise The Real Way

So there was this story in the New York Times a couple weeks ago about how combining high intensity and gentle cardio is the best way to shape up your bod, heart and insulin resistance. It was the most read story for days. This made me laugh. A lot.

You see about four years, I used to go to the gym almost every day with my friend Yun. It just happened that the Athletic Center was right beside the Zoology Department and well, it just became this habit. Anyways. So one morning around 7:30am I find myself standing in the weight room like normal, doing some bicep curls or something, looking in the mirror at myself and all the other sweaty goons pumping iron around me.

And it struck me. I yelled over to Yun: “Does it not weird you out that we live such sedentary lives that we come into a windowless, airless room to LIFT THINGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN just to maintain some semblance of muscle tone?”

Sort of like how pairing vigorous, sweaty, heart-pumping exercise with milder, gentler, chat-while-you-walk kind of movement is LIKE REAL LIFE ACTIVITY. Hills have ups and down. Sometimes you need to get places fast, sometimes slow. Sometimes you are carrying things and sometimes not. So yeah. I guess it’s all just a sign of the times. But really, the gym is not the outdoors. Go get some ecotherapy for your body.