Saturday, August 6, 2016

Healthy As an Olympian


Michael Phelps, arguably the greatest swimmer of all time with 22 Olympic gold medals and 39 world records, provided us implicit advice about maintaining an activity-oriented approach to a healthful lifestyle. In an interview with Bob Costas on August 3, 2016, Phelps acknowledged how his physical and emotional health declined after taking “a break” from swimming.  He said that he “…literally [did] nothing, for a long time. I gained 25 pounds” and his mental health deteriorated so markedly that he had contemplated suicide.  This man who had been diagnosed with  attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age nine managed to create a phenomenally successful life centered upon swimming. Swimming had become so essential to his physical and mental health that life without swimming seemed meaningless.

As few could, Phelps epitomizes my personal definition of a healthful lifestyle activity.  That is, he has fashioned an activity that is rational, organized, comprehensive, and long-lived.  And he has executed the activity to benefit him both physically and mentally.

There is only one Michael Phelps.  But I am not the only one to recognize the critical value of activity. Activity theory and activity therapy are well recognized and accepted.  Activity theory posits that actions determine what we think more than the converse (Leont'ev, 1978).  Consistent with that belief, behavioral activation therapy helps patients perform activities that reverse unhealthful habits, drug abuse, and depression, among other problems (Pagoto, 2008). The basic notion is to structure your lifestyle and life space to nudge you toward doing that which will make you more healthy.

Being effective with activities, however, is more than just performing actions.  You must be very clever in what you do.  I swim, but I do not consider my swimming to be a healthful activity in the full sense of my use of the word because I do not do not swim in a manner that is fully rational, organized, comprehensive, and long-lived.  Swimming for me is more pure pleasure and relaxation.  I don't mean that there is anything wrong with using swimming the way I do.  But, for me, my real "working out" consists of the on-land cardio and weight-lifting that I do in a manner that is fully rational, organized, comprehensive, and long-lived. I simply have chosen to use swimming casually.

So think about what you are doing to be healthy.  Consider how fully rational, organized, comprehensive, and long-lived it is.  If you are serious about making significant, enduring health habit changes, you probably can profit from at least tweaking your routine to be consistent with a complete healthful activity.  If you need help to make that happen, you can refer to my Don't Rest in Peace book.  You don't have to be an Olympian to make heroic improvements in your life. 

References

Costas, B. (2016).  NBC Interview with Michael Phelps who discussed leaving and returning to swimming after having retired in 2012.

Leont'ev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness, and personality. (M. J. Hall, Translator) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Pagoto, S., Bodenlos, J., Schneider, K., Olendzki, B., Spates, R., & Ma, Y. (2008).  Initial investigation of behavioral activation therapy for co-morbid major depressive disorder and obesity.  Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, Vol 45(3), Sep 2008, 410-415.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013313.

No comments:

Post a Comment