Adult Athletes

One of the things I've noticed about adult athletes is that they are somewhat different from the norm. Most have interesting occupations or unusual hobbies. Maybe, since adult athletes are such a small percentage of the population they are a little different in their thinking and out look on life in general.

I have a Thursday morning walking group and I have a french teacher, a horse farrier and a fellow that investigates disease outbreaks in Kentucky, kinda like the CDC folks in Atlanta does. Then me an optician, another unusual occupation. I don't think anyone would disagree that all these are unusual ways to pay the bills.

It long been proven that adult athletics are a white collar interest. Generally people who work physically hard all day like construction or factory workers don't have any interest in athletics. They want to go home and rest. Maybe that's one of the reasons for our high rate of over weight and obese north Americans. Standing all day on an Assembly line or sitting on a bull dozer are tiring but they don't get your heart rate into the training zone.

I have during my long stretch on the planet done several different jobs, from fast food as a teen to factory worker to construction labor to military executive. I've experienced a lot of jobs and conpletely understand not wanting to be active after getting of work from a labor type job. A beer, something to eat and a good TV show are heaven after a physically hard day of work.

I communicate with a lot of on line friends that share my interest in being an adult athlete and everyone is in a white collar or service profession. The Japanese have an interesting way of dealing with this problem and I have seen this first hand. Before the work day starts at everything from the factories to the elementry schools everyone is out for group exercises. The at lunch you see the office buildings and factories empty everyone out on the lawns for naps after eating. Then at the end of the day they often have another group exercise session.

I don't know what would work here but maybe a page out of the Japanese's manual would be worth trying in our country.

Thanks for reading.

Working Panda