One consequence of working at home is that I'm not forced to get up off my butt and walk or ride my bike to work for at least half an hour a day. Also, I don't make it to the gym as often. So I've had to be more conscientious about getting some form of exercise every day, usually a combination of calisthenics and walking.
Finally, in order to assist me in my quest to avoid turning into a total formless blob, we finally invested in the Wii Fit game system. I've got to hand it to the ingenious Japanese engineers who designed this system. It's really helping me a lot in ways I never would have imagined.
One of the advantages is that there are a whole bunch of exercises that work on every part of your body. After the first few days of working out with this system, I was experiencing muscle aches all over my body. Which I think is good... Better than experiencing an ache here or there. The whole body aches seemed proof that I was getting a balanced workout throughout my entire system.
The philosophy of the Wii Fit system is that your end goal is to develop balance and good posture. When you stand and move the right way, and when your left and right sides are balanced, it has a tremendous effect on things like metabolism and strength and general well being. I've noticed, for instance, after about 10 days of training with these exercises I sit at my desk completely differently. And when I sit or lie down or walk, or do anything physical, really, I feel more comfortable and relaxed.
I guess I never really thought about it or took notice until now that the strength of the muscles around my waist or my thighs have an impact on my ability to pick things up with my arms or my ability to keep my balance on my feet. My ability to balance has an impact on how quickly my feet get tired when I need to walk a long distance. It's amazing to me to realize how the muscles on one end of my body actually interact with muscles on the other end of my body.
The thing is, it is all interconnected.
The same is true of every other aspect of our lives. Our physical well-being has an impact on our ability to concentrate mentally. Mental clarity enables spiritual reflection and strengthens moral action. Physical strength renders us more fit for moral service. Spirituality and morality are in turn concerned with relationships and behavior that foster physical health and mental peace. Everything that we do, every relationship that we have has an impact on everything else.
That's something for me to think about as I do push-ups or hold a yoga pose on my tip toes.
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2 comments:
This is a good endorsement - I've been thinking about whether I could benefit from a wii as well.
Yeah... I didn't mean to do a Wii advertisement. But it is really great! It gives you excellent feedback on how you're doing the exercises, and it tracks your progress daily, which helps motivate me to be regular. I love it.
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