Is Working Out a Hobby Or Lifestyle?
Working out, so long as it increases anaerobic and/or aerobic activity, is great for your body and especially for your mind. So many are often focused on the physical attributes while the mental benefits are ignored entirely. Does that make working out a lifestyle or is it just a hobby?
If you are lifting to achieve set goals, aspirations, or exceed daily parameters you set for yourself, working out is more of a lifestyle. But, if you love it and make it a primary focus of your daily life, it’s more of a hobby as well.
Honestly, why can’t it be both? For those who truly hate lifting weights and working out but do it because they want to build their bodies and health, it’s more of a lifestyle, for sure. But it’s not very often that people work out when they really, truly hate it.
What Exactly Defines a Hobby?
It’s easy to cross the line from hobby to interest and vice versa. In fact, most would assume that their interests are also hobbies and, of course, it’s hard to make a hobby out of something you’re not interested in.
The cut-and-dry definition of “hobby” is an activity you repeat on a daily or nearly daily basis that you really enjoy.
Whether it’s building model cars, putting together massive puzzles, working on refurbishing old boats, converting trailers into teardrop campers, or lifting weights, it’s a hobby if you love it and participate in it as much as you can.
A hobby is something you dedicate yourself to, while an interest is something that is fleeting. For instance, let’s say you run across an article on fountain pens and become really interested in owning one. Before you know it, you own five or six.
However, as time goes on, you stop purchasing them and collecting them. That’s a prime example of an interest that could easily have been confused with a hobby.
Health Benefits of Working Out as Your Hobby
As a hobby, working out is less fitness-oriented than a lifestyle. A good example of this is making it your goal to go on a run four times per week. It’s not that you want to lose weight or improve your cardiovascular system.
It’s just that you love to jog through the neighborhood, say hello to neighbors as you pass by, or enjoy the beauty of the day. However, just because you make jogging or weightlifting a hobby because of how you feel, rather than particular goals, doesn’t mean it’s not healthy.
While you may not have a goal of packing on 20lbs of lean muscle, your body still goes through a series of tasks that help improve your overall health.
- Stretch and tone muscles
- Balances your blood sugar levels
- Reduces stress
- Lowers blood pressure
- Lowers bad cholesterol
- Produces a healthier mind
- Improve your alertness
- Burns fat
So just because it’s not a goal-oriented workout routine, doesn’t mean there aren’t several facets of your physical and mental well-being that are improved as a result of your hobby.
5 Reasons Working Out, Gymming, and Fitness Should be Your Hobby
If you are considering adding a hobby to your life and you have the time and space in your daily routine to do it, there are plenty of good reasons to go ahead and make the leap.
Socialization
If you’re getting out of your home every day and working out, whether it’s right there in your neighborhood or at the local gym, you have to socialize. Maybe you tend to be introverted or maybe you just don’t get out enough.
Either way, your ability to socialize and meet new people, potentially friends, and even romantic interests improve.
Improves Your Mental Well-Being
Even as a hobby, you will see positive results, especially in the beginning, as your body goes through a period of shock and rapid adjustment. The positive changes improve your mental well-being, with the addition of extra blood circulation through the brain.
Increases Your Life Span
No one is going to find the fountain of youth anytime soon but you can certainly improve your chances to live longer by working out and getting healthy, even if it’s just a hobby. After all, you’re improving your heart, circulation, respiration, weight control, and so much more.
Improves Your Mood
This goes hand-in-hand with improving your mental well-being. If you are more alert and thinking straight, you benefit more from your brain’s release of endorphins. Endorphins make you feel good and they are directly responsible for “runner’s high.”
Improves Your Skin and Bones
You may think of running in terms of lungs or heart and weightlifting in terms of muscle, but working out improves so much more, including your skin and bones. Exercising increases the production of antioxidants, which help to clean your skin of free radicals.
Exercise that includes high-impacts, such as weightlifting and running, improves bone density and reduces the likelihood that you will suffer from osteoporosis later in life.
What Kind of Fitness Activities Can Be Hobbies?
We could draw up a list here that would easily take up enough pages to fill a book. There are all kinds of fitness activities that could easily become hobbies and might already be hobbies in your life.
People get very passionate about these activities and they will have you wondering if working out is a hobby.
- Whitewater kayaking
- Kayaking in general
- Neighborhood running
- Working out at your local gym
- Hiking
- Long-distance backpacking
- Morning walks
- Disc Golfing (combines hiking with disc throwing)
- Pick-up games of basketball or football
- Tennis court
- Wall ball
- Free running
- Skateboarding
- Ice skating
- Mountain biking (my favortie)
- Street biking
We could go on and on with list after list of fitness activities that can be hobbies. Any kind of activity that increases your heart rate to well above your resting heart rate becomes a fitness activity. When you do it for fun, repeatedly, it becomes a hobby.
Can I List Working Out as One of My Hobbies on My Resume?
You could certainly do so, as long as it fits the job description. For instance, your hiking goals in a specific section of the Smoky Mountains are probably not going to help much for an administrative position in an office.
However, let’s say you belong to a group that goes hiking in the Smoky Mountains on a regular basis, even if it’s just a Facebook group of like-minded men and women who want to challenge themselves on some difficult hiking trails.
Listing something like that shows teamwork, especially when you’re out in the woods and tackling a number of obstacles. Teamwork is important on just about any job site and it might be worth listing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hiking group or a local gym group, so long as it applies.
You can also use your fitness hobbies to match your values with that of the company you are trying to hire with. Hobbies may even work as an introduction, although that is more situational.
All Things Considered, Is Working Out A Hobby?
Doing what you love, consistently in your life, is considered to be a hobby in most cases, even if what you love to do is working out. Hitting the gym to meet a goal that you’ve set, even though you don’t prefer to have to do it, is more of a lifestyle, especially if you sustain it throughout the years.
Either way, one thing is certain—working out, whether it’s anaerobic or aerobic, is very healthy. It will lead you to create better habits and, perhaps one day, will become your new hobby.
Citations and References
Semeco, A. (2021, December 14). Exercise: The top 10 benefits of regular physical activity. Healthline. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise
What should we write as hobbies in resume? Quora. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.quora.com/What-should-we-write-as-hobbies-in-resume
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