Lose Fat & Improve Your Health by Playing, Not Exercising

by Nia Shanks | Follow her on Twitter here

Do you have to exercise to build a lean and healthy body? Not necessarily. Allow me to explain.

What ever happened to the days when people would just play physical games and have fun? Nowadays people are so concerned with “exercising” and “working out”. Well guess what: I’m going to let you in on a BIG secret – it is possible to play games, have fun, and build a better body and improve your health, all at the same time! Sadly this may sound like a shocking concept, but it really isn’t.

Instead of ”exercising” to lose weight or improve our health, we could play games, have fun, adopt new hobbies, and also create some great memories in the process on our quest to building better bodies. The solution – play games or participate in physical activities that you enjoy instead of looking at exercising like it’s another daily chore that must be completed.

There are literally limitless physical activities you can participate in, regardless of your age, athletic ability and personal preference. For example, some of my favorite physical activities besides strength training are hiking, rock climbing and bouldering, snow boarding, playing football, pick up basketball, racquetball and tennis, swimming, playing soccer with my dog, and many more activities. And I have a list of new activities I want to do and enjoy as well.

Think outside the box. Maybe you just want to hike and explore new areas on the weekends; maybe you want to tackle a new challenge and take dance lessons or join a martial arts class. Just find something that sounds interesting to you and do it.

The great think about “playing your way lean and to better health” is that it will be fun and enjoyable, so you will be more likely to stick with it long term. People can only force themselves to walk on treadmills and spend hour after hour on an elliptical machine for so long.

Note: I am not telling you to stop strength training. At the very least you should be following a smart workout plan. But instead of worrying about doing “cardio”, use the information from this article instead. For instance – get off the treadmill and go play racquetball or go hiking. Whatever sounds fun to you.

If you have no idea what to do, just think about things you enjoyed doing when you were a kid, or something that you think would be “fun to try”.

Sometimes it’s a great idea to forget about exercising all together and just play and have fun. Make it a point to decide on one or more activities that you will try this week. My new activity for this week is frisbee golf.

What are some of your favorite fun activities?