Ok, I do belong to a gym. Yet workouts are hard and I’m not a huge fan
of sweat. But I do it because it is
important for so many reasons. It helps
osteoporosis and bone preservation. It
is also can help delay the muscle loss that starts at age 30. Exercise burns
calories, but more importantly it strengthens the hormonal communication that
keeps a person feeling full and stops them from storing excess fat. And as we all know, cardio is excellent for
the heart.
There are those that are athletes. They take to athletics young, continue with
their sport through adulthood and never need to be prodded or urged to
workout. They are able to make the time
for exercise no matter what life throws at them because they love it and
because it is a priority.
That has not always been the case with me. I’ve tried being a gym rat but failed
miserably. Somehow, spending hours on an
elliptical machine didn’t give me the results I wanted but did succeed in
boring me. I tried jogging. Surely all those people I see running morning
noon and night must be onto
something. I made it about a mile. I then traded in my running shoes for
rollerblades. I
Finally, I had an epiphany.
I’m not by nature an athlete. At
my core, I am a creative-type, having been an actress through my childhood and
early adulthood. What types of exercise
do I enjoy? That would be exercise that
isn’t just repetitive but where I actually get to create something.
I first realized this as an adult taking figure skating
lessons. Now, learning to figure skate as
an adult is admittedly somewhat humiliating.
You are in a rink with 8-year-olds leaping to the left and right of you
while you are struggling to glide on one foot.
I grew up far from any ice skating rink and put on ice skates for the
first time as a teenager. I liked ice
skating because it involved more than rote exercises. I got to put moves together and make up
little routines.
I then tried some dancing classes. My goal was not to be the next Misty Copeland. My goal was for better movement, to become
stronger and to challenge myself. I
really saw a lot of changes in my body from dancing, especially my abdominals
since everything is supported by your core.
Next I tried ariel hammock.
The first thing I have to say about that is that I’m terrified of
heights. The next thing I have to say is
that I had so much fun. I loved
challenging myself and I got to put on a little show. Again, the creative aspect of exercise
distracted me from the fact that I was working out.
So that is how I got into shape. I’m still not a great runner and I still get
bored on the elliptical machine. That
hasn’t changed. You don’t get to change
who you are. You can change your
approach. Doing so worked for me.
What type of exercise
excites you?
