Does Exercise Help?

            I was told all my life that exercise was important – not to mention fresh air and sunshine. I never paid much attention, as I was always on the skinny side and had sufficient muscles for my daily life. I figured my just-about-daily bike rides to and from school were sufficient, as well as my weekly LARPing in my teens. I was probably right, but who could say for sure?

            My adult life provided far less opportunities for movement, but, again, I wasn’t particularly troubled by that. At least, not in any way I was aware of. Then, a few years ago, my wife decided to start exercising regularly, and I figured it was probably a good idea to join in – I’ve always accepted that exercise keeps you healthy when you’re older, and I figured that if the routines are built at a younger age they’ll be far easier to maintain. We managed to get into a routine of walking three days a week.

            It took a while, but eventually our bodies adapted and came to expect the exercise – just in time for winter. So we pulled out my old Dance Dance Revolution games, and switched to that for the winter months. It worked well, and when spring came we went back to walking. Last year, we even increased the exercise to every day instead of just three days a week.

            Still, while I knew the exercise was healthy, I couldn’t see it having any impact on me. Yes, it was a good established routine, and was making excellent building blocks for eventual old age, but it took up a great deal of time with no visual impact. I didn’t resent it, but I did often wonder if there was much point to it.

            Then various circumstances conspired to make it so DDR was no longer an option for exercise, a month before it was warm enough to start walking again. In the month it took the weather improve, we had no exercise. I didn’t notice any difference at first, but once I did become aware I came to realize that they happened within the first few days. It became harder to get out of bed in the morning and I had noticeably less energy throughout the day. What energy I did have wasn’t used optimally, because my brain wasn’t functioning as well. I even became less enthusiastic about going to the weekly D&D game I run.

            When the weather improved and we were able to get out walking again, all of that reversed within the first couple days – and I was amazed. There were so many little things in my life that had been affected by the lack of exercise – some I’d guessed at the cause, but others I hadn’t even noticed until exercise improved them. For me, it was quite the revelation.

            So, if you ever find yourself wondering if you should exercise – or if there’s any point in exercise – chances are there are a whole bunch of things in your life exercise can improve, though you probably won’t even notice them at the time.

            Besides, it’s good to know that when the zombie apocalypse comes you’ll be able to survive longer.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.