For four hours Rodney Corn, Bobby Cappuccio and Scott Hopson presented 3 workshops back-to-back on topics ranging from myofascial slings to how to inspire change in our clients. 

These guys are all engaging, intelligent and passionate about what they do.  All three workshops were highly informative and enjoyable, but I found Scott Hopson’s workshop particularly powerful because of the underlying message. 

Scott presented on how the fitness industry as sucked a lot of the joy out of movement– by compartmentalizing it and calling it “exercise”.  And we don’t stop there…we further categorize the ”type” of exercise.  Is it considered “cardio”, “resistance”, “flexibility”, “agility”, “core training” or what have you.  But (like most things in life) these divisions are largely an artificial construct, a point he drove home by having us play a series of games.

We started with one game where we had to stand and try to brace ourselves so that we couldn’t be knocked over while our partner tried to hit our hands with their’s to unstabilize us — meanwhile we were trying to do the same, hitting their hands first before they hit ours. 

It was a very silly game, but actually a very effective “core workout”. In future iterations it became “metabolic training”.  It was also “reactive training” ….and probably a few dozen other exercise science things that we didn’t think of.  But what we experienced was simply having fun. 

Less than a minute into the drill everyone is the room was smiling and laughing.  Nobody was thinking about “reps” or “sets”, “loads” or “periodization” we were just playing…and in the moment.  But yes, in the strictest sense we were “exercising”.  Except it wasn’t a dead boring chore to do so.

Scott contrasted this by having us do a series of standard planks, holding them for 30-60 seconds, repeating it for 3-5 times…just like any “good” fitness professional would do.   The difference in our collective energy was startling.  No more laughing, everyone looking rather board and uncomfortable and I’m sure (if the individual thought processes were something like mine) thinking, “Geez, this really sucks!!!  How long before this is over?“ 

No wonder obesity is at an all time high and only about 30% of the population exercise on a regular basis.  In our quest to make America healthier, we may have made it so unpleasant it would only appeal to a card-carrying masochist. (They are required to carry ID aren’t they?) 

For about 30 minutes Scott took us through a series of more games that had us moving, sweating, burning calories, improving our mobility, etc..etc..but mostly LAUGHING. 

Would you get fit if you played games like this on a regular basis?  You betcha.  Best of all you would WANT to keep playing them so “compliance” (something we fitness professional wrestle with) isn’t an issue.

When we were kids we didn’t think about making sure we had “a structured exercise program that addressed all the fundamentals of fitness”…we thought about running around and having a blast with out friends.  Fitness was the bi-product, a happy side effect, but not the goal. 

Imagine if people came to the gym with the notion that they were going to “play games” for an hour rather than being “tortured” or “bored to tears” for 60 minutes.   Forget the physical health benefits of something like that for a second — just consider how much joy and stress reduction something like that would bring into people’s lives?

I was going to call this blog post “When Fitness Was Fun”, but then I realized exercise science geek that I am —  I STILL have it backwards…really it’s about the idea that at one point in our development ”fun” was “fitness”. 

(Special thanks to Scott, Rodney and Bobby for a fun-filled and thought-provoking day).