The definition offered below differs from recent policy definitions of physical activity. It attempts to capture physical activity by acknowledging the variety of meanings that we attribute to it. I humbly accept that what follows is only a partial definition, and encourage the reader to link these possible aspects of physical activity with their own experiences.

Physical activity might be :

Political
Spiritual
Hysterical
Historic

Exhaustive
Excruciating
Uninteresting
Protesting

Sensual
Sexual
Risqué
Risky

Arresting
Disarming
Investing
Resisting

Painful
Painless
Subtle
Grand

Curtailing
Surveilling
Obsessive
Compulsive

Dialogical
Diabolical
Expensive
Discursive

Ambient
Ambulant
Connecting
Correcting

Wondrous
Wonderful
Unbearable
Uncomfortable

Cathartic
Chaotic
Instructive
Destructive

Balletic
Bathetic
Compulsory
Derisory

Beneficial
Sacrificial
Moving
Reinforcing

Instinctive
Artistic
Repulsive
Oppressive.
J Piggin, 2018

For more on this issue, please see:

Piggin, J. & Hart, L. (2017). Physical activity advocacy in the UK: A multiple streams analysis of a hybrid policy issue, Leisure Studies. 36, 5. 708-720.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02614367.2017.1285957

Piggin, J & Bairner, A (2016) The global physical inactivity pandemic: An analysis of knowledge production. Sport, Education and Society. 21, 2. 131-147.