Muscles Not Motors

We were up in Hanover, NH when I first saw this phrase. In usual fashion I picked up the local Competitor Magazine or free race pamphlet outside the EMS. As I flipped through I found this gear review ad:

This caught my eye mainly because it reminded me of a friend that is a pretty hardcore motorcycle rider. When he badgers me about riding my bike my response is usually something along the lines of, “Why ride a motorcycle when you could pedal a bike?” Now we’ve socialized the ‘Muscles Not Motors’ phrase and its starting to mean a lot more to both of us, so I proceeded to Google search on the topic to see what returned. I found this interesting Blog:

MUSCLES NOT MOTORS   http://musclesnotmotors.blogspot.com/
Muscles not Motors is the motto for
Onion River Sports (in Montpelier, VT). It's a lifestyle statement. We think the formula is;
Healthy = get outdoors + self-propelled movement... that's it.
To you, it can mean whatever you want, just make sure you get some fresh air doing it.

So that’s it, outdoors under self-propelled movement equates to a healthy lifestyle. I think ORS is really getting to something here. Over the years as I’ve learned to love and appreciate endurance athletics, I’ve grown more and more distant from the gym and have almost completely gravitated to the great outdoors and even more specifically, the trails. There is just something powerful, uplifting and relaxing about being outside, in the woods, and carving through nature under your own power. The only technology less than 2000 years old within earshot or sight being just that of the gear you brought in on your person. How much more freeing can that be? Being in the wild and free from the bondage of our everyday worlds; something us techno-geeky, rat-racing urban-dwellers are so far away from these days – lends a brand new perspective. Maybe it’s naturally emotional for me, but when I’m in the woods I’m more connected to my fundamental being; a deeper understanding of myself and my human nature. I catch myself thinking about the real important stuff like family and friends or the overwhelming beauty of our existences and the world that can never cease to amaze us. I think about our origins and am more than thankful to our God that lets us experience these little snippets of heaven in real life. More tactically, I think of what wild animal might be around the next corner – a real sense of adventure even. It’s amazing that I can get this feeling just a couple miles from home when I drop into the tree canopy and away from the daily grind. You don’t get that in the gym, or on a motorcycle or even running on the road where you’re less worried about a coyote and more so of a soccer mom in a minivan on a cell phone.

Beyond the physical health, my real personal benefit comes from the emotional and mental fortitudes that these experiences provide. The physical and the mental are equally important in the formula.

My updated equation reads something like this:
Health = self-propelled movement + outdoors in nature
Maybe ‘Muscles Not Motors in Nature’

I think Onion River Sports has it right, but I take it one step further.