#257: How Understanding The Exercise Paradox Is Key To getting Our Kids Moving.
Being regularly active is more about neuroscience than being lazy.
Welcome to Mid-May 2024!
Hope your gardens and yards are starting to show the signs of Spring. With May long weekend here in Canada being the unofficial start of summer, we see more and more people outside moving. Walking, running, cycling, skateboards. Soccer, baseball, golf, tennis and all kinds of summer sports are moving forward for all ages. We want to be outside when the weather is nice, we feel better when we do so, and that keeps us going. When the weather turns, most of us dive inside until we see the sun again.
When it is nice outside, we tend not think about being motivated to explore. We just do it, because we want to.
Similarly, when we look at why fewer and fewer young people are moving enough, we tend to focus on motivation.
Research tells us that lack of motivation is not necessarily the reason we don’t move enough (yes , this applies to youth and adults).
Being regularly active, or not, is connected to more to our brain’s guidance rather than motivation.
Dr. Matthieu Boisgontier is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Health Sciences, a physical therapist, a kinesiologist, and a certified medical imaging technologist. His research program blends neuroscience, gerontology, and health to contribute to understanding physical inactivity and sensorimotor control. His scientific work has been communicated in 50+ countries and 500+ media (e.g., The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail).
In 2021, Dr. Boisgontier brought forward (With Dr. Boris Cheval) the concept of The Theory of Effort Minimization in Physical Activity (TEMPA).
In short, TEMPA provides a theoretical framework to explain why many individuals intending to be physically active fail to turn these intentions into action. We are naturally attracted to effort minimalization. This means our brains are conditioned to take the easy route, to conserve energy. While we could go on about why, the brief answer has to do with our evolution. An evolutionary perspective helps evaluate the extent to which exercise is medicine and to explain the exercise paradox: why people tend to avoid exercise despite its benefits.
With focus on what our brain is pushing us (and our kids) to do, it gives us the opportunity to recognize and address in making sure we get enough movement into our, and our kids, day.
The solution seem simple with this finding, yet not easy.
As adults, we can recognize that we will never feel like getting that walk or workout in. It also explains why so many enjoy recreational sports into adulthood but don’t enjoy structured workouts at the gym.
In fact, this recognition also helps us address why structured workouts for kids, like those for adults, are often not going to be effective. They want to have fun. Kids want to play. Yesteryear that meant playing outside at this time of year: Tag, hide and go seek, skipping ropes, road hockey, wiffle ball, frisbee, touch football. We cycled everywhere so we could socialize. There was something bigger to the activity itself: fun and purpose!
The impact of TEMPA is that as soon as the fun is taken away from our kids, and they are pushed into structured non-fun activities, the brain pulls them to do something else, Something less difficult, to conserve energy. Like sticking to a screen for example.
Boisgontier and Cheval would position that this is how we are wired.
I first found out about “The Exercise Paradox” from Phil Campbell and his work with Sprint Intensity Interval Training programs (Sprint 8). When you go down this rabbit hole and investigate further, it makes perfect sense. Our interview with Phil Campbell from 2021 is below. Campbell’s context for The Exercise Paradox is pushing ourselves within a structured program that has medicinal benefits unlike any other source. (Sprint 8).
It is difficult for any of us to get moving daily, unless:
A. You are forced to. For kids , this would be daily physical education at schools : which largely does not exist anymore. For adults, this could be a structured class at the gym.
B. Physical activity is fun. The activity brings you joy. When you see your kids smile when they are playing tells that story.
C. You are old enough to understand what your brain is doing by wanting to rest, and you overcome it.
Most elite athletes will speak about their love the game they play. Many will communicate how they love the process of training in preparation for their chosen sport. This love they speak of requires more energy than sitting at home tied to their screen, but they drive to do it because of their passion.
This process is not reserved for elite athletes. As adults, we have an obligation to guide our kids into activities they will enjoy. Fun will overcome the pull to not be active. Laughter and excitement will overcome our natural pre-disposition to doing as little as possible.
Unfortunately, the current statistics around regular physical activity are not great. What we see in Canada is similar to the stats across the western world.
Understanding The Exercise Paradox and TEMPA will allow us to not only guide our children but realize, as adults, that we will rarely want to put the extra effort into getting our activity in today.
More on Sprint 8 and the work of Phil Campbell:
