Why Adults Need to Play More Often

a post by Derek Beres for the Big Think blog



People take fitness seriously. Those ten thousand steps. Marathon over, time to tackle the ultra-marathon. Pounds upon pounds on the squat rack – just make sure to post it or it never happened. And yoga, well, people take their yoga very seriously.

Taking health seriously is wonderful, arguably better than not considering it at all. That said, one of the greatest joys of exercise is play. Your workout should be hard, otherwise you’ll plateau and never grow stronger. Yet this does not imply it can’t be fun.

Many sequences I create for my classes begin with me rolling around on the floor. In fact, that’s what inspired me to pursue fitness in the first place, a dance class in which crawling around was mandatory. It reminded me of my youngest years rolling down hills because, well, the hill was there. Only later do we justify what once was spontaneous and pleasurable.

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Sporcle – cool games that make learning fun again

via MakeUseOf.com by David Pierce on (don’t ask as I’ve had this for ages)

You've seen the “make your kids love learning!” toys before, right? Things like LeapFrog, and that computer game where you keep the spaceman alive by doing math problems… too fun. Once you hit about 9 years old, though, those games start to walk the fine line between fun and pathetic.
Thankfully, there's Sporcle – a site full of games that's the best way to learn cool things, and make it fun, for adults (or really anyone). Sporcle is a site of what it calls “mentally stimulating diversions”, and it's exactly that – games that are fun, exciting, and actually educational.

Read David’s full post and you’ll maybe think that the games are US-centric. Not so. It’s just that he is so finds listing the sovereigns of England a bit difficult (I assume since he can name all x American Presidents).

Addiction warning!!

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