exercise

Mission Impossible Laser Game

I totally forgot to mention that in December Matt and I went to San Antonio, Texas where we discovered the BEST game ever. It’s a laser game where your job is to get through a room of lasers—from one side to the other—without ever touching any lasers. You feel like you’re in Mission Impossible, partly because they are playing music from the movie.

You lose points if you hit a laser. Once you are through the room you can pick a more challenging level or try to beat your own time.

We were lucky to be the only people there so we could just keep playing the game over and over. Matt would go, I would, etc. for an hour and a half.

It was a reminder that games can be exercise and exercise can be fun. I like to exercise so I don’t always need that reminder. Still, I didn’t realize I was getting a workout until I […]

Mission Impossible Laser GameMaggie Downie2014-08-04T18:02:17-04:00

Mark Twain 70th Birthday Speech

Note: I often tell my classes about a great quote from Mark Twain about how he smoked so many cigars and didn’t exercise, and while that was a good option for him it would kill another man. This is the full speech from where I got that quote as published on the PBS website.

Mark Twain, 1905.




	Clemens outside Stormfield, 1909 Courtesy The Mark Twain House, Hartford

Well, if I made that joke, it is the best one I ever made, and it is in the prettiest language, too. I never can get quite to that height. But I appreciate that joke, and […]

Mark Twain 70th Birthday SpeechMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:28-04:00

As Easy As Riding a Bike

The group of friends I run with decided we should do more cross training (we should). It was decided we would add bike riding to our routine. I’m not a fan of bikes ever since I was twelve and I rode into a fence and flipped over on my bike. It doesn’t help that I grew up on a busy road. To keep me safe my parents painted a white line at the end of the driveway that I was not allowed to ride passed. That meant my biking basically consisted of riding around in circles in the driveway, which made biking dull and made me afraid of riding on the road with traffic. So I pretty much haven’t touched a bike in over seventeen years. I don’t even own one.

For this adventure I borrowed an old bike from my parents. The rear tire needs to be inflated before every ride. There are gears which I’ve […]

As Easy As Riding a BikeMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:29-04:00

Exercise All Around The House

If in our busy worlds you are going to make time to fit exercise in, one thing to do is to put reminders around and make it easy. Of course scheduling time for workouts (and then doing them) is important, but in addition sneaking in fitness throughout the day is beneficial. I live in a house where I have a full studio downstairs, but sometimes, quite pathetically, that is just too far away. If I’m really going to do a stretch that I know my body needs every day I need it to be even easier. So I have items to remind me at my desk, in the bedroom and in the living room.

I keep foam rollers and yoga blocks in my bedroom so I can stretch easily or foam before or after I hop in the shower. And I keep a ball at my desk so that I can stand up and do some occasional exercises when the mood hits me. I also have a smaller ball for self massage. I have a yoga mat, flexband, and stability ball in my living room. I will admit, I use these the least. When I go to the […]

Exercise All Around The HouseMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:30-04:00

Is Exercise Killing Me?

Last week I was frustrated by an article headline I saw somewhere on the Internet. It read “Is Exercise Killing You?” The topic of this new study on exercise was also discussed (thankfully very responsibly) on The View.

So, is exercise killing you? The article I actually found on the topic published in the New York Times was called: “For Some, Exercise May Increase Heart Risk.” A much less fear mongering header which always makes me happy.

The answer is a resounding NO. Exercise is not killing people. The study currently getting a lot of attention found that for 90% of the population exercise has benefits for the heart, lungs and body. But it turns out that for 10% of the population exercise may increase blood pressure and cholesterol. There was no shown increased risk of heart attack of this small group of the population.

I hope the article doesn’t give people an excuse not to exercise. “What if I’m one of the ten percent?” The best thing to do is to get a baseline from your doctor before starting an exercise program. And check in a few months later to compare. Exercise […]

Is Exercise Killing Me?Maggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:54-04:00