swimming

In two months, I will compete in my first triathlon. Flashback eight months: I am a thirty-five-year-old mother of four children, ages nine through two, and after a decade of pregnancies, night feedings, and strolling around town at a toddler's pace, I have only recently started exercising regularly: at a hot yoga studio, two to three times a week.

A recent article in the New York Times asked the question: “What is the single best exercise?” It’s an interesting read, and there are a lot of suggestions. Fortunately, it doesn’t go out and suggest that something like swimming the butterfly or running up stairs or doing repeated burpees are THE best, because the article does qualify that “best” doesn’t always mean best.

As a runner, James Fell was intrigued by a recent study that found swimmers live significantly longer than runners do.

The jury's still out, but I'm going to give it a shot.