Things to do with your body (that aren't exercise)
A non-exhaustive list.
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I write thousands and thousands of words about exercise here in Body Type. I’ve written about:
How strength training will do more for your body than cardio
How author/podcaster Rabia Chaudry found success with strength training
This bonkers 2009 survey about women’s bodies and what “bulky” is
… to name a few.
But this is a publication about all things to do with the body, body image, and the tricky business of the physical self — it’s not only about exercise. My life and my relationship to my body are not only about exercise, either. I’m finding it useful lately to consider what I enjoy or value doing with my body that isn’t intentional exercise.
I want to hear from you about the same. Leave me a comment below about your favorite non-exercise body activities. I’ll kick things off:
When I wake up, I don’t get dressed in “real clothes” right away (since I work from home, I don’t have to). I put on enormous, fluffy socks and a downy bathrobe and do my morning writing in the coziest outfit possible as my body warms up for the day. No matter what else happens, I start my day by making my body cozy.
Right before I get into bed, I rub eucalyptus and spearmint lotion onto my hands and elbows. I can practically feel my brain receiving the sleepytime signals of this ritual. My bedtime lotion is akin to anesthesia. Smells that are only for bedtime make you sleepy, it’s science!
Sleeping on my stomach: It’s bad for my back. It’s bad for my face. It’s bad, bad, bad. I don’t care. I will not yield. I fucking adore stomach sleeping.
When I go for my little walks around the neighborhood, I always stop at a small park. I sit on a bench, take my headphones out and force myself to experience a few minutes of no external stimulation beyond what nature offers. I stare into space and know I might look sort of weird just sitting there doing absolutely nothing, but who cares. Jenny Odell wrote a whole book about how important this kind of thing is.
The first five minutes of a bath: I do not enjoy sitting in bath for a long time, certainly not long enough to read several chapters of a book. I can’t find a totally comfortable position and the water’s getting cold. But the first five minutes, when the steam gently rises from the water’s surface and I’ve just dropped a sizzling bath bomb into the depths, are a revelation. I feel like one of those foam animals that come in a pill. Drop me into some water and watch me form into a happy human!
Sitting in the shower: When the whole bath thing feels like too much, I just sit in the tub and let the shower rain down around me. This can be dramatic and maudlin, a real act of Going Through It. Been there! But it can also be peaceful, meditative, tranquil. Your choice.
Flopping onto the guest bed in my office around 3 p.m. to scroll Reddit for a brain break: It’s mindless. It’s lazy. It’s not the kind of thing successful humans do, I’m sure. But when I spend a little time on r/ContagiousLaughter or r/TikTokCringe, you know what happens? I laugh my ass off. I roll around on my bed, alone in my office in the middle of the day, laughing so hard that tears come to my eyes. This is very good for the body and brain.
Pooping. Feels great. Come on, grow up.
Sex, orgasms, using sex toys, etc. Come on, you’re a grown up.
When I go swimming for exercise, there is a point when I won’t really swim, I’ll just walk down the lanes, bobbing into and out of the water. I drag my limbs around and drift as if in a trance. I’ll dive down to the floor of the pool and swirl my body around in whatever way feels good. It reminds me of being in my parents’ above-ground pool as a kid, playing “Mermaids” with my best friend. Delightful.
She usually hates this, but sometimes I’ll take my cat into my arms, go up to my husband, and hug her in between us. I use our bodies to make a Cat Sandwich. There are times when she’s purring, though, so I’ll stand there and feel her rumbling little body and my husband’s arms around us both and my heart feels so full and my body so suffused with contentment that I’m not sure what I ever did to deserve it.
Lying on the floor for no reason: This is the inside version of the sitting on the park bench, staring at nothing. Sometimes I’ll just lie on the floor of my living room and stare up at the ceiling. No yoga mat or anything, just raw dogging the floor. This isn’t really meditating but it kind of is. It feels transgressive and deviant, somehow. But if you can’t break the rules with your body in your own home, where can you?!
(SIDEBAR: You know, for someone who loves exercise so much, my god do I also love lying, sitting, and flopping! The duality of man…)
Finding a sunbeam: I live in an apartment building in a cityscape that doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight at most points in the day. I have to seek out the sun as it claws its way around skyscrapers. There was a day recently when I went sun chasing. I woke up, got dressed, and walked across the street to a little park where I know I’ll find one square foot of sun hitting a certain spot at a certain time in the morning. I dragged a chair into that spot and let the sun beam onto my face for about 10 minutes before I went back inside to stare at a screen all day. I believe that we’d all live a bit better if we just treated our bodies like houseplants.
Wow, I want to write my own list! This was beautiful.
Flopping onto a made bed, especially a hotel bed or one that's in a loved one's guest room. (This was inspired by your 3pm Reddit but activates other pleasure sensors for me.)