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- Spring Days Lend Themselves to Outdoor Physical Activities
Most people think of a gym workout or Zumba class or riding a bicycle when someone asks for examples of physical activity. And now that we are quarantined, we are having to reimagine our exercise work outs. Gyms, yoga studios and exercise facilities are not recommended when social distancing is in place. Everyone is spending more time at home. So, let’s get creative.
If you look back in history, our grandparents had no physical fitness gymnasiums, exercise classes or yoga.
Some seniors that are octogenarians and older, did not have time saving appliances. My mother, born in 1924, had no electricity or running water growing up in her house of 6 siblings in Belle Rose, LA. How did they get exercise? They walked to school barefoot, played in the yard and dirt and helped with the chores around the house. She picked greens, stuffed mattresses with fresh Spanish moss, hung laundry on the clothesline outside and carried water in from the cistern.
Hang your next load of clean shirts, dresses or pants on hangers outside and let them dry in the warm spring sunshine and breeze. It will be good exercise. Reach and stretch your arms above your head. Rise to your toes to close pin the hangers on the line. When everything is dry, you can reach up to take the clothes down and carry it inside.
Something is better than nothing. And that goes for physical activity, also. Researchers are now recommending short bouts of exercise, so even 10 minutes of sustained activity is beneficial.
With the weather being so nice, take advantage of doing some chores outside. Your clothes will smell clean and fresh and you will have a bit of physical activity to log for the day.
Fun Fact: An early patent for a clothes dryer (U.S. patent #476,416) was received by George T. Sampson on June 7, 1892.