david taus

The Exercise Paradox

music: King Sunny Ade- Juju Music

These are days of change, these spring days. The weather is turning. We now have a blessed extra hour of light at the end of the day instead of at the start. The school year is sliding into its homestretch. I can once again see a horizon and am completely dumbstruck as to how vast it is, how many possibilities there really are. Ultimate frisbee is starting up again. Music is plentiful and in full swing on three fronts: two electric and one acoustic. And despite all this, I don’t have much that needs to be said. These spring days are filled with routine and logistics, and bring a certain stasis to things.

I was sidelined for a good week and a half this past month with the second (and hopefully final) installment of periodontal work. It was better this time around-I think the dentist cut me up a little nicer than last time. Lesson learned: always go in for surgery in the morning when those with the knife are still fresh and alert. Doctors are people too. But a period of relative inactivity and reduced caloric intake left me fairly miserable for a short spell. It reminded me precisely how little exersice I’ve gotten this winter, how bad my cabin fever was getting, and how ready I was for the warmer months and all the adventures they are to contain.

We expect exercise to be a negative feedback system: the more we exert ourselves, the less energy we have and the less we want to exert ourselves. Exercise is, instead, a positive feedback system: exercise begets exercise. The tricky part is that not exercising is also a positive feedback system and it takes a good deal of willpower to break out of the dental-surgery-invalid state of complete apathy. But now that spring is here and my mouth has more or less healed, it is much easier to take steps towards getting my heart rate up and breaking a sweat. Now begins weekly ultimate games, biking to work in earnest, weekend trips to New Hampshire. Even stasis requires an upkeep, but it is slowly becoming untapped. The gears are once again turning. The blood is once again flowing, and I’m feeling much better about things. These spring days carry with them infinite possibility, but right now exercise is all I can do to work myself out of the tiresome winter paths I have worn.