So...I have once again taken up exercise. I gave it up in 1996. It was a conscious choice. I quit the soccer team and decided that I didn't need to exercise ever again. It just seemed like a silly waste of time to me. Not only did I give up exercise, I think I may be one of the only people to ever actually actively campaign against it.
Let me explain my reasoning for such seemingly illogical campaigning (there happens to be a lot of scientific research to support exercise). When I spoke out against exercising, I wasn't saying we should all be lumps on the couch. Physical activity, in my young mind, was perfectly acceptable. Things like frisbee or football or soccer are virtuous and lovely and should be sought after. What I personally found to be completely silly was exercise isolated from any type of sporting event or game. Running isn't fun. If you think it is, you are lying to yourself. It hurts. It makes your lungs burn and your legs tired. You get sweaty and smelly, and if you're not careful your toe nails will turn black and fall off. Soccer, on the other hand, is fun...and if you have to do some running as part of the victory process, so be it. But just running? Such a thought makes reason stare.
So, flash forward from 1996 about 5 years. At the end of my mission, I started setting goals. Missionaries do crazy things like. I decided that maybe it was time for me to be "fit" again. Something about serving the Lord heart might mind and strength. When I got home I joined a gym, and I have actually been a member pretty much ever since that time. It turns out that all those scientists are right. Exercise does make you feel better. As my HEPE teacher at BYU always hoped for me, I have learned to "reap the benefits" of exercise.
Why on earth am I pontificating on such a random topic? You all know me and probably realize that when I say that I have taken up exercise, I mean that I work out once a week--twice a week if I'm lucky. I am certainly no rambo barbie. After a 2 month spell with no gym membership (I thought that I could save money and do step aerobics alone in my bedroom. That was a joke...), I went back to Gold's yesterday and gave them a ridiculous sum of money so that I can run and not go anywhere, and then lift some heavy things, all while enjoying the latest music videos. As part of getting the membership, I also had a workout with a personal trainer. I don't know what this says about me, but she had me do a lot of exercises that worked me glutes...and today my bum is very sore. That is all.
Thoughts on exercise? Please share!!
3 comments:
Yay! Another post! I knew my faithful daily checking would be rewarded.
As for exercise: I exercised six days a week for about a year and a half after I was divorced. I had the time and somehow it became really important to look good and feel good.
After I started working again, exercise stopped. I didn't have time. Now that I have access to my lovely Las Vegas apartment complex's free gym, I decided to start again . . . at 5:00 a.m.
After about a month of cranky rantings around dinner time when I was completely exhausted, I decided that the benefits of exercise didn't quite outweigh the negative effects. I might start up again at the beginning of the year, but I doubt it.
nice goin, bethany. exercise is good, but may not be as good as some may think. see 1 Timothy 4:8...
I totally agree with you on the anti-exercise stuff. I never have been able to bring myself to exercise for the sake of exercising.
I would, however, like to complement myself on eschewing the 2nd family car and biking to and from work. Now I can claim to be exercising and saving the environment all at once. Who ever thought I'd become such a flaming liberal? Something about the San Francisco air . . .
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