MEN'S FITNESS MAGAZINE

Play As You Go
By R. Daniel Foster

The simple act of putting one foot in front of the other has turned Alan Aycock's life into a giant treadmill. First it was the "gel-cushioned" running shoes, then the "coach" software that graphs his training progress, then the meticulous journal entries in which Aycock records the minute mood swings he experiences during his runs.

Aycock, who has been pounding the pavement for 20 years, recently went full tilt. He began publishing scholarly articles on running in esteemed leisure-studies journals. Aycock keeps on running but, like a hamster on a wheel, never gets anywhere, seldom enjoys the trip and even forgets why he wanted to run 26.2 miles in three hours in the first place.

He's in good company. Like an army of Energizer Bunnies, he and his ilk look like they're having a blast maniacally beating their drums, but check out their energy source: Instead of drawing from a reservoir of unmitigated playfulness, such types mindlessly charge ahead with all the seriousness of Olympic athletes. They're out to win, and you'd better not get in their way.

Then again, you may belong to this clan yourself if you're convinced that you can't enjoy yourself unless you're being all you can be, the kind of guy who aims for a new personal best each time he laces up. Not that there's anything wrong with focusing on improvement. But when that focus becomes relentless and you don't lighten up once in a while, play comes to resemble drudgery, and all its inherent benefits-relaxation, refreshed perspective, enhanced creativity-becomes alloyed. Just goofing off or gelling becomes a guilt-inducing struggle with yourself.

Time out

One reason for our growing inability to slow our bodies and minds, even when we're supposed to be recharging, is the seductive, portability and efficiency high technology affords us. Consider the office of the future. You'll wear it around your waist, according to a team of Los Angeles interior designers who created the office "tool belt," with pockets for a cellular phone and laptop computer. Such technology helps us work smarter and make better use of our time, but it also tempts us to work anytime, anywhere. East Coast rail commuters will soon be tethered to cubicles outfitted with teleconferencing outlets and laptop hookups-nice for those times when you blew off completing a project the day before, but deadly to those crucial, meditative minutes we need each morning to ease our way into the stresses of the day. Efficiency may be achieved at a dehumanizing price.

"We're in a chronic state of alert," says Margaret Carlisle Duncan, a leisure sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and president of the Association for the Study of Play. "Pagers used to be worn just by emergency room doctors, but now everybody has one. And students in my class routinely whip out cellular phones because they don't want to miss calls."

Applying work values to play leaches the joy out of down time, Duncan says. "I ask the students why they play some sport and they say, "I do it to decrease my body-fat ratio, release endorphins or increase my muscle mass.' They hardly ever say, 'Because it's fun,' or 'It's something I can do with my buddies to have a good time.' Doing something for the fun of it becomes almost a bad thing. What possible good could come of it?"

Not only do Americans us their leisure time badly, but the time set aside for it has also plummeted. In her book The Overlooked American: the Unexpected Decline of Leisure (Basic Books, 1991), Juliet Schor ticks off a mountain of statistics: Americans have added roughly a month of labor to their work year during the past two decades, and paid time off has been slashed. We now get about 90 fewer minutes of sleep a night, and spend around four times as many hours a year shopping as Western Europeans. Time, in fact, has become a currency that we "spend" instead of "pass."

What leisure time we do grab often goes to waste-going to the mall or watching Court TV. The latter phenomenon has led Duncan to speculate whether we've become a nation of watchers, passively viewing sporting events, true-crime TV Shows-and other people's problems.

How to be a playboy

Asking how to put your leisure time to good use is a bit like asking how to increase your stress-to-relaxation quotient when you're snoozing in a hammock. Still, we can learn ways to "do" leisure better, to play the right way:

Define your terms. Start by defining what play and leisure mean to you. For many, leisure equals recreation, or "re-creating ourselves and getting in touch with joy, a way to celebrate being alive," says Howard Papush (aka Dr. Play), who operates the Los Angeles-based Let's Play Again, an organization that teaches harried execs and other fun-deprived grownups how to let down their guard. Play, Papush says, doesn't need an end beyond itself, and it can be totally purposeless. A sense of time and even place blur when you become completely absorbed in the moment.

"True play takes you over and takes you right out of your fear," says University of Pennsylvania play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith. "People who are better players have more confidence in school, sports and all areas. Kids who are good players will generally by successful as adults."

Simplicity. When donning your leisure suit, first consider simplifying your activities, Duncan suggests. Take off your watch, and strip your sports equipment of monitoring gizmos. Avoid activities or sports that seem overly ambitious or expensive (para-gliding, heli-skiing). You're likely to spend more time worrying about your performance, appearance and staying alive than having fun.

"This 'be all you can be' stuff is bull," Duncan says. "People ought to reserve the right not to be the very best, if that's what they want in exchange for some quality moments with themselves or the people they love. Reserve some time, as odd as that sounds, to be spontaneous." That might include not planning an elaborate weekend trip and instead-as you might have done in your youth-just throwing some gear in the trunk and heading to the mountains.

Be impractical. Don't be afraid to goof off from time to time, giving in to the side of yourself that couldn't care less about how you appear to others. Remember when you made up stuff as you went along-street baseball, rules to Monopoly? No one's hovering over you with a 24-volume set of The Guidelines to Life, saying you're not allowed to do it again in other areas.

Divide your time. Separate work time from playtime. If you have an evening at home with nothing to do, avoid flipping through trade magazines. "And allow yourself some time to daydream-it's like taking a recess in your mind," Papush says. Anything that causes time to vanish is a great leisure choice, he says-reading a great novel, doing a crossword puzzle, gardening, woodworking (or any hobby) or going for a walk, among many others.

But what if yesterday's spreadsheet pops into your mind while you're enjong the scenery? "Just say, 'Oh, well,' passively disregard it and return to the moment," says Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston and author of the best-seller The Relaxation Response (Wings, 1992).

Benson's relaxation method can also be used during repetitive exercise, like running, walking or cycling. As you run, for example, use the "Oh, well" technique, and every time you breathe out, think or say the word "now." It will help you stay in the moment. If you do that, the runner's high that normally occurs in the fourth or fifth mile will happen in the first or second," Benson says.

Have fun. Realize that leisure is about being, not doing. "It's a choice you have," says Dr. Play. "Enjoying your leisure time is about connecting with yourself and others. And when you start connecting with the way you used to be as a kid, you'll find it's a way you can be again."