The Fitness World of a Five-Year-Old

At what point do we go from “living exercise” to “exercising”?

I was out on the road again last week. While dashing around New York, Annapolis, and Washington DC, I had a bit of a fantasy that I’d do my daily “quick yoga” practice. Even went as far as to schlep a yoga mat around with me. Sadly it spent the whole time tucked, rolled up, in the corner. Let’s just chalk that up to a fitness fail for me.

What wasn’t a fitness fail however was watching my five-year-old nephew and my three-year -old niece this weekend. I wrapped up my travels spending a couple of fun filled days with two pint-sized energy monsters. Energy monsters they were. Each morning I’d totter downstairs stumbling towards the coffee, and they would be jumping all over the room. Jumping on each other, jumping on their mother, jumping on each other. Oh and when they weren’t jumping, they were running. Up and down the halls, around the sofa wherever they could go. From the moment they woke until the moment they were done, it was all GO!

Something tells me that every mother that reads this is nodding and saying “Yes, this is my house too.”

Now, this isn’t a diatribe about these little bundles of deliciousness. It’s more of an exploration of their fitness habits.

At what point do we go from “living exercise” to “exercising”?

Do we think we’d need to go to yoga, or CrossFiit, or run a marathon if we played parkour over the furniture every morning?

While I was mulling this, the universe rewarded me with more education and information about fitness activities. I had a podcast queued up of Tim Ferris interviewing Art De Vany about how to reverse aging. Art spoke at length about his fitness routine and his focus on fast twitch muscles.

Now sidebar on me for a second – I’ve always talked about while I’m the “little engine that could” when it comes to running marathons, doing anything at speed has always been a challenge. Endurance I can do all day, a game of “chase” wipes me out.

Which brought the De Vany podcast and the exuberance of my nephew and niece together. Art said, “Children don’t do steady state exercise.” I have witnessed this first-hand. The fitness world of a five-year-old is constant, erratic, and energetic.

While running the hills of Oakland is good for my mental state. Is it really moving the fitness bar for me? I’m thinking maybe no. So as I need to find another solution to my travel fitness plan, maybe it needs to include some childlike activities. Maybe it’s time to embrace my inner five-year-old.

Up next. I share what it was like to get dunked in a tank to get my fat measured. Spoiler alert – I did NOT love it.