Shopping as exercise? It’s in the bag
A few weeks ago I found myself in an uncomfortable situation.
Bathed in the greenish fluorescent light of the department store dressing room, I stood in front of a full length, trifold mirror, assessing the situation at hand. It wasn’t what I had hoped for. But it was an important exercise nonetheless.
It’s not easy to get an accurate report from one of these mirrors. From any mirror, for that matter. I fluctuate between troll doll and goddess depending on the store’s lighting, mirror length, angle, my hangry level, how close it is to lunchtime … that sort of thing.
I try to do an average of all views — so for instance, maybe I’m not quite the goddess I appear to be in this one mirror, but I’m not quite the troll doll in that one. That’s what I tell myself, anyway.
And I’d love to tell you that I’m a woman who is confident enough to embrace every curve, every wrinkle, every dimple on my body but I’m not that enlightened, not that evolved. My favourite place to try on clothing is at home, in my bedroom, the full length mirror angled just right, the only light a soft glow from my bedside lamp. I get dressed practically in the dark. It’s perfect.
It also shows, as it turns out. When I step out of the warm half-light into the cold glare of the world, I can see. Sometimes my socks are navy, not black as I had previously thought. One time they were green. And those grey pinstripe crop pants I bought online? Yeah, it turns out they’re blue, not grey — a fact I only accepted on my third attempt at wearing them.
The point I’m trying to make here is that despite the aforementioned hazards, I much prefer to shop online and try stuff on in the dimly-lit quiet of my own bedroom than to be faced with glaring realities and the chirp of teenagers in nearby changing rooms complaining about their everythings. But it’s important to get out once in a while to get an accurate look at what I’m buying, what I look like in what I’m buying before I buy it, and to get an assessment of things in general.
It turns out, it might also be better for our health to shop in stores than online.
We all know that as we get older, we lose muscle mass and our bones get weaker (past the age of 20!), right? Which is why it’s important to do strength-training exercises, especially for those of us who have celebrated our 40th birthdays.
But did you know that shopping can be considered a strength-training exercise? Yup, Karen Middleton, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, said in an interview with The Telegraph that carrying bags home from the grocery or department store can count as an important strength training exercise. And she says that the more we online shop, the fewer bags we carry home from the store, the less exercise we get. It’s pretty simple when you consider it, I guess: when we online shop, we sit on our butts and stuff is delivered to our door, versus getting up, moving our bodies out the door and carrying heavy bags home.
“This isn’t an argument against progress,” Middleton told the British newspaper. “It’s just to show that maintaining strength and being active doesn’t have to mean going to the gym, and we should look for ways to build it into our everyday lives.”
So shopping really could be our cardio, I suppose. Or strength training, as the case may be.
Why, the next thing you know we’ll find out that cupcakes help us grow taller and pizza is an important part of a well balanced meal that also includes Cheetos and peanut M&M’s. It could happen. Peanuts are a good source of protein and Cheetos, um … OK, I’ll think about this later.
Anyway, the subject of shopping as exercise came up because of a study conducted by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists which found that most people over 65 aren’t getting nearly enough strength-training exercise. Gardening, going to the gym, doing housework like vacuuming, that sort of thing. And shopping, apparently. For heavy things.
Now, I don’t want to poo-poo on this study because I totally want to believe that shopping is good exercise, but I do feel compelled to point something out. Have you ever taken a good look at the folks who line up at 4 a.m. in sub-zero temperatures outside Best Buy on Black Friday or Boxing Day? ‘Cause they sell some pretty heavy stuff at that store — TVs and the like. And I wouldn’t categorize many of the people in line as, um, in shape, necessarily. So maybe consistency is key for this type of exercise. Whatever. I’ll take it. And now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my workout with my friend’s credit card and reward points card.