If you have not seen the movie, a martial arts master agrees to help a bullied kid learn karate. When the student shows up for his first day of martial arts training, the student is surprised that, instead of doing martial arts moves, the karate master assigns him a long list of exhausting chores at the karate masters house: sanding floors, painting a fence, waxing cars, painting the house. After days of long hours of chores, the frustrated student rebels against the karate master’s piling work on him instead of following through on the commitment to teach the student karate.
As you may recall if you saw the movie, the karate master was using the household gym (cleaning, painting, waxing chores, sanding) to train techniques, build strength, and develop muscles memory to prepare the kid for competition.
What I observed from my washing my car is that I have traded my home gym for “drive thru” facilities. To eat, I drive through a fast-food restaurant line and do not have even to stand up to to go to a table to be served and eat my dinner. The same is true for car washes. I pull up to the drive thru, pay the attendant or the automated teller and do not even have to stand up to wash my car.
For years I had a gardener for my yard and a pool attendant to service my pool. I also went to a health club.
In hindsight, I have to say that going to the health club was a good idea, but having the gardener and the pool service reduced my calorie burn and muscle development and I find that handling these tasks myself have a huge payout in the pleasure of enjoying my yard.
So for my, the two most dangerous words are drive thru, and my physical activity has increased as I get back to my home gym.
The world’s most noble headhunter!