To be honest, when it comes to exercise, I’ve traditionally been of the “no pain, no gain” school.

Not because I necessarily thought it was better for you. It’s more the fact that I tend to need the intensity to get my monkey mind to stop and to feel the “ahhhh” factor of exercise-related stress release. Plus, I love the camaraderie and physicality of athletic training and competition as an antidote to thinking about the law all day, and it helps to be really fit if you want to compete well.

Lately, though, I’ve changed my approach. After running the Pittsburgh Marathon in May and getting a calf injury in June, I found myself wanting to ease it up a little.

I typically take the bus to and from work, and that involves more than a little walking. The weather has turned mild and lovely in Morgantown this past week, and that’s made me want to walk even more.

Instead of hopping on the bus, I found myself just walking all the way home. And then I found myself looking forward to that walk all day. I added a little yoga upon arriving home to counteract the effects of sitting all day, and suddenly I found myself enjoying a whole new sense of “ahhhh.”

Fitness v. Health

Studies are starting to show that there may be a difference between what makes you fit and what makes you healthy. While intense exercise is often better for increasing cardio vascular endurance or muscle strength, longer and more moderate efforts seem to have greater benefits for heart health and metabolic flexibility.

There’s some evidence that moderate to vigorous physical activity may be better than gentle walking for mental health, however, at least in young adults. But I wonder if that varies by age and by what you’re doing with the rest of your day.

I dearly love (and miss) a good hard track workout. But after a long week of battling the immigration agencies and acting as a human safety net for clinical law students getting their first taste of that brand of chaos, the thought of going out and doing 8 x 1K repeats is just, well, a little too much of a good thing.

That’s why I’ve found myself mellowing out on the sidewalk and the mat lately. There are other aspects of physical wellness that I’ve been exploring recently too - intermittent fasting, hot tubbing, and sauna-taking in particular.

All these are new for this exercise-induced endorphin junkie, but the early evidence is intriguing. I’ll be interested to see how this new vibe affects mental health and professioal performance, and will share the anecdotal evidence in future posts.