A Founding Father Believed in Walking

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 12:15 am

I'm a Virginian -- old school. Which means I rather admire Thomas Jefferson. (Went to school with a few of his descendants, as a matter of fact).

Well, Mr. Jefferson was an enthusiastic walker and promoter of walks in his exercise.

http://www.monticello.org/site/research ... s/exercise \

I thought it was cool.

Post by **reinhard** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:34 pm

Fascinating! Thanks for the link.

I loved, of course, the emphasis on habit. And the connection to mental activities.

And was amused by the emphasis on walking with firearms -- armed urban ranger.

Finally, if Thomas Jefferson, that supreme polymath genius and man of practical achievement, could spare "about two of them [hours] every day to exercise;" we mere mortals, with our vastly less significant preoccupations, have no excuse.

Reinhard

TUK · Post by **TUK** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:42 am

reinhard wrote: we mere mortals, with our vastly less significant preoccupations, have no excuse.

I was not yet born at that time, but I think the laws on day duration haven't changed since. It's still 24 hours.

If this man devoted 2 hours to exercise every day, where did he take that time? We spend ... what ... 8 hours everyday at work, depleting ourselves from our genius and creativity for a fixed amount of money. And we find (I find) that 1 hour every day is a lot, added to that amount of work. Shouldn't we (wage slaves) be all working to find smarter ways of earning money, in order to be able to do as Mr Jefferson did ?

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:25 am

Well, TUK, I don't walk two hours a day -- only an hour and a half or so. I walk to take a break from work and definitely find that I'm an order of magnitude more productive if I get in enough exercise. I'm a tech writer and computer applications instructor and find that I get lots of ideas while I'm walking, so I almost consider it work time.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:55 pm

How much child care, cooking, cleaning, food shopping, and commuting did Mr. Jefferson do? (I know he collected recipes, but didn't do the cooking.) With all due respect, if I had servants (ahem) and worked at home, I might be able to get two hours of dedicated walking (likely in daylight hours) in, too.

Then the question is, would I?

And not to deny the value of his habit and advice.

If you can judge from the novels of Jane Austen, taking walks on a daily basis was a common activity of non-servants and non-farm workers. They got enough walking in, I reckon.

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:00 pm

oolala53 wrote:How much child care, cooking, cleaning, food shopping, and commuting did Mr. Jefferson do? (I know he collected recipes, but didn't do the cooking.) With all due respect, if I had servants (ahem) and worked at home, I might be able to get two hours of dedicated walking (likely in daylight hours) in, too.

Then the question is, would I?

And not to deny the value of his habit and advice.

If you can judge from the novels of Jane Austen, taking walks on a daily basis was a common activity of non-servants and non-farm workers. They got enough walking in, I reckon.

Well, I do work at home, but I don't have (nor need with modern conveniences) any servants. I only get in an hour to an hour and a half most days.

The work from home part ooes give my schedule some flexibility and I waste no time on a commute but I still have to put in a solid 40-60 hours a week to make a living.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 4:10 pm

Notice I didn't count the work time. As you said, you don't have to commute. That's the hour and a half for many people.

I'm not saying it isn't possible. Just harder for some, with decent reason. I don't relate as well to celebrity examples. I'm more inspired by your example and those of the other mere mortals here. Sorry if I seemed combative.

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 4:15 pm

oolala53 wrote:Notice I didn't count the work time. As you said, you don't have to commute. That's the hour and a half for many people.

I'm not saying it isn't possible. Just harder for some, with decent reason. I don't relate as well to celebrity examples. I'm more inspired by your example and those of the other mere mortals here. Sorry if I seemed combative.

I agree it is harder for some. Just giving data on my situation. And I didn't interpret anything you said as combative in the least.

I agree celebrity examples are a bit silly. If you can afford a personal trainer and a personal chef (or the 18th Century equivilents) then your life situation is very different. Comparing ourselves to Jefferson's life situation is more or less like comparing ourselves to President Obama's. (Though I seem to recall he's pretty disciplined about gym time).

snapdragon · Post by **snapdragon** » Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:24 pm

My problems are more childcare rather than time. I do on occasion take the kiddos with but not the same as being by myself and letting my mind wander. Also, rarely do they keep up any pace. One day.

I was thinking Jane Austin novels too. Also, in the Soud of Music the kids often were walked/ marched about. It used to be called taking your "daily constitution"

A while back I seriously considered homeschooling my kids and read some work by Charlotte Mason who was an educator in the eighteen hundreds and many homeschoolers read her works talks about the need for kids to spend lots of time outside and walking regularly. One fascinating thing about her is her ideas of habit forming. She is a huge advocate of developing habits in all areas of life. Interesting reading.