In my latest retreat in Portugal, many participants commented that one of their favorite classes was the one whose theme was play. I shared Einstein’s quote “play is the highest form of research” which highlights the importance of play at all ages.
For children, play is crucial for exploration, creativity, and deep learning, but that same intellectual and physical growth is vital for adults as well.
Why Adults Have Stopped Playing
Somewhere along the aging process, many adults have stopped playing. We place value in productivity, efficiency, and optimizing our schedule of “doing”.
Movement has become something to accomplish rather than experience. Exercise has turned into a performance of metrics, calorie-burning or merely for appearance.
And yet many people feel more exhausted, anxious, lonely, disconnected from and strangely stiff inside their own bodies. What if play is not deemed frivolous but the foundational missing ingredient in adult health?
Play for Adults Is Biological, Not Just Entertainment
After all, play for adults is not just entertainment, but also strongly biological.
We know that in children, play develops motor coordination, spatial awareness, emotional regulation, creativity, adaptability, social connection, problem solving, and nervous system resilience.
When our kids seem cranky or distractable, one of the first remedies is to tell them to “go play.”
As adults, we have deprioritized our need to play but these needs don’t just disappear in adulthood.
The Adult Nervous System Still Needs Variability
The adult nervous system still craves novelty, spontaneity, exploration, rhythm, laughter, and movement variability. Play creates rich sensory experiences that stimulate the brain and body simultaneously while restoring movement options.
When we play, we often move more naturally, creating stronger connections to our nervous system regulation.
Most adult routines are repetitive: we sit, drive, work, scroll, exercise, and repeat. Even our workouts can become highly predictable and overly linear.
But human beings were not designed for only linear movement or productivity; we evolved through exploration, adaptation, and engaged interaction with dynamic environments.
Without enough variability, the nervous system becomes less adaptable, and we are more likely to feel tight, fatigued, guarded, and disconnected. Even if we move regularly, the lack of variability inherent in play makes our brains duller and less organized.
Play and Neuroplasticity: How the Brain Stays Young
The brain thrives on novelty and play stimulates neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and organize. The importance of neuroplasticity is mentioned daily in the popular longevity world, but is play highlighted as much as strength training?
Health is not simply about strength or cardiovascular fitness; it is equally about maintaining cognitive flexibility, coordination, responsiveness, and emotional adaptability. Both the body and brain stay younger when they continue learning through exploration.
When you try something unfamiliar such as dance, hiking uneven terrain, throwing a ball, learning choreography, crawling on the floor with your child, paddle boarding, roller skating, etc. the brain creates new neural pathways.
The LYT Method as a Playground for Adults
In our LYT classes, we are constantly challenging the brain and body with novel choreography, multiplanar movement variability, challenging sequences, handstands(!), and core integration. I think of my time on the mat as a playground for discovery and joy!
How Play Shifts Adults Out of Survival Mode
As adults, we live in a constant low-grade stress response with schedules, deadlines, and multiple responsibilities.
Play for adults shifts the body out of our rigid survival state into a zone of curiosity where our nervous system becomes more responsive and less guarded. Just like a cranky child, play regulates our mood and clears our minds.
Play Is Not the Opposite of Discipline
Unlike children, we adults often think play must be earned, that joy must be justified. We treat play as optional instead of essential. Many people may fear that embracing play means losing structure or seriousness.
But play is not the opposite of discipline or the absence of depth; it is often the doorway back to it. The healthiest nervous systems can access both focus and spontaneity, strength and softness, discipline and curiosity.
Our LYT movement intentionally integrates both precision and exploration, inspiring our bodies to feel engaged, curious, and responsive.
Reclaim Play for Your Health
Play is not just good for the brain and body, but it also turns fitness into an enjoyable practice that restores and improves our relationship to our bodies and to the present moment.
Play reminds the body that life is not only about surviving responsibilities but also about participating in the experience of being alive.
And that vitality transcends the wellness measurements of biomarkers, fitness trackers, and performance metrics; health is also about adaptability, curiosity, emotional flexibility, joy, responsiveness, and presence.
Play is the missing ingredient to health that we adults must reclaim. As Einstein alluded to, we conduct our own internal research when we play and explore. And as another famous man said, “It is a happy talent to know how to play.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson). So, here is your permission to play, to discard assumptions about limitations, and be open to possibilities. You can find lots of ways to play with me on the online LYT daily platform, and here is a beginner class to get you playing!
