Snow Fort Fitness: a great way to end 2008

It’s the last day of 2008. Outside it’s -20° Celsius. I’m in our nice warm kitchen. My wife is rustling up one of her famous deserts for our New Year’s Eve dinner party. A perfect way to wrap up a killer session of snow fort building with my daughter.

Earlier in the day, my daughter was very insistent that we go outside and play. With the cold temperatures, and recent days of rain, the snow is dry and cake-like; rubbish for building snowmen or having snowball fights. But the idea of building a tunnel fort suddenly came to me. I haven’t done that since I was a kid!

So we got out all the shovels, picked the biggest mound of snow, and started digging. After an hour of digging and scraping we ended up with a pretty cool snow fort. We pretended it was the underground stronghold from the Prince Caspian movie (my daughter loves the Narnia stories).

It struck me as I was digging, and sweating, that snow fort building is pretty good exercise. Sometimes we forget that the little things like playing with our kids can make a significant contribution to the bottom line when it comes to our fitness goals.

And for those of us “above the snow line,” it can be even easier to forgo the hassles of bundling up to go outside for some good clean fun. But once you’re out there you don’t notice the cold. You get to spend quality time with your family. And you get some extra physical activity while you’re at it.

So go build a snow fort or a snowman. Have a snowball fight. Go snowshoeing or walking in the woods. Go sledding. And for those of you that live in the heat (I’m slightly jealous by the way), go build a sandcastle - or do whatever it is you folks do in the winter…

If you’re still not convinced, I have one more side benefit to mention. Getting outside in the winter will help you kick your vitamin D producing engines into action. You won’t get the same effect as during the summer, when the sun is stronger, but every little bit helps. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are linked to a whole host of beneficial effects linked to health and overall mood and well being.

May you all ring out the end of 2008 in style. I’ve been blessed with an excellent year. I’m grateful to all of you who have been following this blog and my newsletter. I’m looking forward to even bigger things in 2009, and I want to wish all of you much happiness, health and success in the year to come!

Cheers, Adam

Comments

[John Sifferman - Real World Strength Training]

Now, THAT is a great way to end the year!