In a word – “YES”!!!
According to the Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389) there are numerous benefits to regular physical activity including:
- Controls weight
- Combats health conditions and disease
- Improves mood
- Boosts energy
- Promotes better sleep
- Can be fun and social
What does this mean in terms of mental skills and the recreational athlete? Being more fit can remove distractions caused by physical concerns allowing more focus and concentration on the key elements of performing sport tasks. Your brain will thank you for the following:
- Having greater endurance to allow focus until the final whistle blows, or the last target is broken.
- Having sport-specific strength allowing efficient movements controlled consistently by the sub-conscious.
- Having better weight control and muscle tone that can help alleviate the “weekend-warrior syndrome” in which muscles that are not used until the weekend become sore!
So, given all of the positives, why do we find it so difficult to establish and maintain a consistent exercise routine? Professor Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University has the answer in his new book “Exercised – Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding”
In his book, he takes an anthropological view of how humans evolved through study of the last remaining tribes of hunter / gathers still in existence in the world. He makes the point:
“For generation after generation, our ancestors young and old woke up each morning thankful to be alive and with no choice but to spend several hours walking, digging, and doing other physical activities to survive to the next day.”
He explains throughout the book, that after all tasks related to survival needs were completed, the focus was shifted to an energy conservation mode. There certainly was no exercise for exercise sake to maintaining fitness. There was no need for it – and in fact, burning excess calories would put survival at risk. The hunter / gather’s daily tasks left them in optimal condition to find sustenance, reproduce, and hopefully survive attacks from predators.
So, that is how our programming has evolved! Our genes tell us to do our necessary work to gather the most calories we can, and then conserve energy as much as possible! That worked great during an era when our ancestors were in a perpetual situation of a caloric deficit, but not so great in modern times where we do not need to do nearly as much physical labor to secure sustenance, and are actually very easily faced with a caloric surplus! If you feel like not making it to the gym or hitting the pavement for a run, there is a good reason for that – evolutionary forces have primed us to shun excessive non-essential exercise.
So, what are we do to? Dr. Lieberman provides a number of suggestions to encourage us to get off the couch and keep our bodies in better shape. I would encourage everyone to read his book and adopt the strategies that best fit your temperament! For me, I have made a three day / week morning workout a scheduled part of my day. I do it every other day like clockwork, prior to doing anything else that could be distracting (so no checking the phone until after the workout is completed).
I supplement that very simple workout with a regimen of walking and bike riding in addition to practicing and performing my chosen sport. My walks and bike riding follow a schedule that is planned into my day. I also use a fitness tracker to get feedback on my results.
Others may find other means such as social contracts or exercising with friends helpful. Again, do what works for you!
It will take effort to overcome thousands of years of evolutionary forces, but the results will be worth it!
For those who would like to read Dr. Lieberman’s book, I have attached the Amazon link below. Here’s hoping you find the right work out for you!
References
7 great reasons why exercise matters. (2019, May 11). Retrieved January 31, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389
Lieberman, D. (2020). Exercised. Penguin.