Why Play Is the Answer if You Hate to Exercise

My guest on today's episode is a fellow named Darryl Edwards. I recently described him to a friend of mine as one of the strongest and most physically capable people I have ever met who also just happens to shun going to the gym, lifting weights, and any other narrow view of exercise. Intrigued? You should be!

Darryl Edwards, Fitness Explorer

Darryl is a former investment banking technologist turned movement coach and author. He is the founder of the Primal Play Method, and a physical activity, health, and play researcher. His Primal Play Method fuses evolutionary biology with the science of physical activity and play psychology.

Like me, Darryl has dedicated himself to inspiring humans—regardless of age, ability, or disability—to transform their health by making physical activity fun and engaging. His work has been featured on documentaries, TV, radio, podcasts, and international press.

Darryl is the author of the best-selling book Animal Moves and has released a range of fun fitness cards for adults, juniors, infants, office workers, and fitness professionals called the Animal Moves Decks. He regularly presents as a keynote speaker at events worldwide. His April 2019 TED talk, "Why working out isn't working out," has now been viewed over 800,000 times.

I encourage you to listen to click on the audio player above or listen wherever you get your podcasts to catch every nuance of our interview. (As you might guess from his accent, Darryl resides in London, England.) Or you can read a transcript of our conversation below.

The Interview

Brock Armstrong

I recall you actually saying the words "I hate exercising" at the begging of your keynote presentation at a health and wellness conference we were both at a few years ago. There was an audible gasp from the audience (or at least from me). Why do you say that you hate exercising?

Darryl Edwards

I feel that exercise is a relatively modern construct. Exercise was only developed to cater to the lack of physical activity that would come up by our normal day-to-day activities. We became more sedentary: from a hunter-gatherer population to agriculturalists to factory workers, to a decrease in manual labor. And with that decline, there's been a greater desire to incorporate physical activities such as exercise as a supplement, as a substitute, as a proxy for the lack of physical activity that we get for our normal daily lives. And so because of that, because there isn't a driver to move based on our...

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