When writing a paragraph on an activity that is physical, it’s often helpful to see how the activity could potentially fit in the physical activity pyramid.
This will allow the reader to hopefully relate how this particular activity can help them stay at an optimum level of health and fitness.
The following list consists of three different activities that are typically physical, but one of these is not necessarily true for all cases due to its lack of a necessary connection with bodily movements.
1. Bowling
When participating in the sport of bowling, it is not necessary for one to be physically active.
It’s possible for one to sit and watch others bowl, or maybe even play a game of corn-hole outside of the bowling alley, but there is no necessary bodily movement involved in this activity.
2. Folding Laundry
A person can get quite bored while they are folding their laundry, but it is not physically demanding at all.
Sometimes it may be necessary to move to another room or outside, but the activity itself is not going to cause much stress.
The key thing is that one must be able to stand up (possibly using a laundry cart) and crawl around on their hands and knees, but this is not necessary for sitting down in front of a washer and dryer.
3. Diving Board
People who dive off of diving boards have probably never thought about how the activity fits in with the physical activity pyramid.
It’s true that one needs to jump off of a board and fall into water, but if one can do this then they are no longer physically active.
This was a very difficult task for me to do, so I went to bed with the least challenging activity in the list. Anyways, here are the results:
There were two options for each of these three activities.
The first option was to place them on the physical activity pyramid, and the second option was simply to keep them where they were before (i.e., not physical).
In all cases, placing one on the physical activity pyramid resulted in their placement going down one level on my pyramid. The only exception was with bowling which did not change at all.
4. Indoor Cycling
It is not physically challenging to ride a stationary bicycle indoors. The only thing that causes one to sweat is the physical activity itself.
It may require standing up, but this is not necessary, and it’s possible to pedal in a stationary position if one wishes. It is possible for the person doing the cycling to be sitting down, there are indoor cycling instructor positions available where one can learn about indoor cycling sitting down (or even laying down).
5. Watching Television (with no remotes)
Some may argue that watching television does not involve any physical movement at all. Some versions of television do not have fixed channels, so instead of choosing what channel to watch, one simply needs to change the channel manually.
I would have placed this under physical activity as well, but I think people who let their children or family members just watch television all the time should know that they are not staying fit in any way.
where would the following activity best fit on the physical activity pyramid?
1. While wrestling with your child, you are twisting and turning trying to pin them to the floor without hurting them or yourself.
You’re also laughing, smiling, yelling and maybe even tickling them at the same time.
2. You want to get in a quick workout before work so you go for a 30-minute jog around your neighborhood.
Instead of taking the freeway that cuts through town, you decide to go down smaller side streets instead because they have fewer stoplights.
3. For over a year now you have been having chronic back pain and you have decided it is time to make some lifestyle changes in order to get better.
You have been taking a monthly yoga class for the past few months and you think that could be something you could incorporate into your regular routine.
You don’t really want to participate in traditional yoga classes with the rest of the yogis because they are over-treating themselves, wearing messy clothes, not eating and just generally not being healthy.
You decide that you do not want to participate in this behavior, but how can you do this without feeling guilty?
4. You are a professional athlete who has practiced martial arts for 20+ years, so at first it seems like nothing new when you start playing soccer after work.
