Exercise
Until recently I spent my life thinking up creative excuses not to exercise. I occasionally started something like water aerobics, swimming, walking, which lasted for a short while and then just disappeared. I probably paid for several of those fancy machines at the local Sport & Health by my membership that was seldom used.
Then last spring I attended a “health ideas” open house at Capitol Hill Yoga, where I met Brian with his big red ball. Brian is early 30s with the body of an experienced trainer. (He was the personal trainer for a professional basketball player for several years.) He had me do some wall exercises using the ball, which were actually almost fun. One thing led to another and David and I decided to drop our Sport & Health membership and put a home gym in our basement. We hired Brian to help us design it and to help us get started using the equipment.
We bought an elliptical machine and another machine (by Hoist) that has a lot of options for weight-bearing exercise. We decided to forego the wall-mounted TV and settle on a cheap boombox. I discovered the Big Chill double CD set and I was ready to work out!
Brian came once a week for a couple of months and put us through our paces. He gave us enough optional exercises that we could mix them up and never do the same work-out twice! It was good that he was checking up on us because I think I could have easily slipped back into my pattern of good excuses why not.
But instead for the first time in my life I began to exercise almost daily AND LIKE IT! I just crank up the volume on the boombox and start moving on the elliptical. I now do 1.3 miles in 15 minutes on level 3. This is nothing for a person who is really in shape, but it is significant for me. I then move on to a series of exercises on our big red ball. I conclude with a series of exercises using weights and some “butt-taps”, like almost sitting down. This takes about 30-40 minutes.
Since starting this new regime, I have lost about 7 pounds and I feel so much better. I hope I can in a small way make up for my 55 years of bad attitude when it comes to exercise. Better late than never, I figure...
Then last spring I attended a “health ideas” open house at Capitol Hill Yoga, where I met Brian with his big red ball. Brian is early 30s with the body of an experienced trainer. (He was the personal trainer for a professional basketball player for several years.) He had me do some wall exercises using the ball, which were actually almost fun. One thing led to another and David and I decided to drop our Sport & Health membership and put a home gym in our basement. We hired Brian to help us design it and to help us get started using the equipment.
We bought an elliptical machine and another machine (by Hoist) that has a lot of options for weight-bearing exercise. We decided to forego the wall-mounted TV and settle on a cheap boombox. I discovered the Big Chill double CD set and I was ready to work out!
Brian came once a week for a couple of months and put us through our paces. He gave us enough optional exercises that we could mix them up and never do the same work-out twice! It was good that he was checking up on us because I think I could have easily slipped back into my pattern of good excuses why not.
But instead for the first time in my life I began to exercise almost daily AND LIKE IT! I just crank up the volume on the boombox and start moving on the elliptical. I now do 1.3 miles in 15 minutes on level 3. This is nothing for a person who is really in shape, but it is significant for me. I then move on to a series of exercises on our big red ball. I conclude with a series of exercises using weights and some “butt-taps”, like almost sitting down. This takes about 30-40 minutes.
Since starting this new regime, I have lost about 7 pounds and I feel so much better. I hope I can in a small way make up for my 55 years of bad attitude when it comes to exercise. Better late than never, I figure...
posted by Barbara at 9:01 AM
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