Lessons From the Edge

Fun is good exercise.

Yes, that's what I meant to say.
Under the right conditions, good exercise can also be fun. But the lesson from this week is, Fun is good exercise.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 10:00 you can find me in the Activity Room leading an exercise class for the residents at Edgewood. We do stretches, a little cardio, and some light weight-training for our arms and legs.
In addition to those exercises, we also do a fair bit of joking, laughing, singing, and just being goofy. In short, we have fun.

Wednesday, one of the aides said to me, "I wish I had time to join your exercise class. It always sounds like you are having fun!" (She escorts several residents to and from class, but she has other work to do while we're exercising.)
I assured her we do have fun. Even made some comment about how tight our abs are from all the laughing we do. And that's when I realized the importance of having fun. As much as I'd like to believe the residents are coming to class because they want to make healthy choices for their bodies, I am pretty sure there's more to it than that.

I am quite certain they come for the fun of it.

They come for the laughter. And laughing is a good ab work-out.
They come for the jokes. And I am sure there is some cognitive value to thinking about punch-lines and figuring out why they're funny.
They come for the singing. And I know singing is good for your mental and physical well-being!

It's true, I am excited about the work-out we do. I want to help our residents get stronger and improve their quality of life. I love it when I see the progress they are making! But even if they don't quite get the moves "right", even if they give up before we're finished, I'm so glad they come and have fun.

Because fun is good exercise.