Hard Work ≠ Exercise

Don’t take the title wrong, I am not making light of hard work.  I have engaged in hard work most of my life, real hard work.  I’ve work construction pouring concrete for 10+ hours a day, raising houses, roofing in the middle of summer and digging ditches.  Real hard work not the kind you hear about at the water cooler!  Hard manual work can be physically exhausting.  Hard work can make your body stronger.  Hard work can be very rewarding.

But… Hard Work is not Exercise.

As someone who has done hard physical labour for most of my life, this was a hard pill to swallow.  The more I meditated on this thought the more I realised the truth of it.  Hard work can make you strong.  Hard work can give you endurance.  But still, hard work is not exercise because it isn’t usually beneficial to your whole body.  Not saying I want to arm-wrestle with a steel worker!  But even the steel workers (I had one for a student) need exercise.  Exercise is about more than strength of a specific muscle group, it is about fitness.  The downside of hard work is it often leaves you to exhausted to exercise.  Any good exercise program will help you accomplish 3 main things, elevate your heart rate (aerobic), work your muscles (strengthen) and most importantly and often forgotten improve your agility (flexibility).  No hard work is going to do all three of these.  Add a balanced diet of appropriate portion sizes and you have yourself a recipe for good health and happy thoughts.  Make your exercise a part of your daily life by spreading throughout your day and night, it makes it harder to skip and will improve your mood and day.

People think exercising is hard work, if they do tell them they are doing it wrong, because Hard Work isn’t exercise!

The funny thing about exercise, is most people view it as a chore, but no matter who you are, you always feel better afterwards…

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