Hallways to Health
We took the bus to the mall, and then enjoyed a long walk home. While we were there, we shared a hot chocolate, Ted said hello to Santa and told him what we all want for Christmas this year: Health, happiness and togetherness. So far this year, we have all we could ask for, and more! We wish you an enjoyable end to 2025 this Christmas season and a strong start to the new year.
Waiting in the corridors of our yet-to-send email correspondence was my next link letter. With Lauryn’s consistent nudges to send a letter in the month of December, this one finally made it over the threshold…
Dreaming of homeownership and watching the best of HGTV on YouTube to help us get there, we came across a video the other day comparing house designs — now, versus then. The TV presenter then asks the question, what happened to the hallway?
Some people view hallways as wasted space, but in home design, they are transition zones to showcase and enjoy the unique aspects of a house. They are places to welcome, areas to cook and eat, and then spaces within a home to retreat for cosier pursuits, like reading, or to use when working remotely at home. Hallways also allow us to take glimpses of what is behind the doors and walls of a structure without throwing off the scale and scope of how we comfortably integrate into the space.
Design and workflow are not only entities to think about in your next home improvement project, but also in your next workout. Finding the fitness flow and creating a balanced training schedule that is organized to your own intentions and then scaled to your ability. Use the hallway approach for the continued enjoyment of the exercise pursuit, and for the experience to make sense.
A 20 minute warm-up? That’s a health hallway. Taking some rest between your sets of strength and then your next endurance tasks, that’s a nice transition zone too. When your fitness routine becomes an open concept you may be able to get it all in for efficiency, but it may create confusion due to the frantic pace, lack of flow, and the visual stimulus of jingling or swinging bells all the ways at once.
The hallways in your health routine are less literal, but as equally integral to the structure and goals of your fitness routine. Check in with the body at the reception, work on mobility and stretching exercises in one part of the routine and strength in another. Well organized hallways in a home flow from one possible pursuit to the next. In your workout, structure stretch, strength and endurance entities of exercise so that the business done in one moment doesn’t spill over to confuse or ruin the next.
In the construction of a home, the TV presenter suggests to keep it simple. Focus on high quality building materials, and focus on principles not trends. In the evaluation and execution of your training program do the same — follow Barres and Bells simple training techniques to achieve timeless success.
Take care,
Ian and Lauryn