Certainly, when our prehistoric ancestors performed any activity, there was a mixture of purpose. An activity served as defense, combat, education, honing survival skills, recreation, sport, competition, as well as some degree of exercise. It is no wonder that we come down to a 20th-century man and woman who cannot distinguish between the two. You often hear these popular though incorrect statements in the literature and discussions supposedly regarding exercise. We have recently recognized that there are five distinct differences between exercise and recreation.
Exercise is a logical strategy to dupe the protective mechanisms of the body.
Properly applied, exercise requires a clinically-controlled setting to check our instincts. Exercise necessarily pits the intellect against the instincts. Recreation is illogical. It is instinctual. It is whimsical.