Not just for kids

I named my studio Recess on purpose.  I believe that fitness should be as much fun as possible, that it should be a break from the relentless pressure of life.  Adults have forgotten that a lot of the things we tell kids are good ideas for ourselves as well.  Here are a few:

• Go outside.  I was out running errands and I saw some kids playing in the park, just running around with a ball on the grass.  There were some supervising adults around somewhere who were doubtless going to herd the kids back to some other sort of activity eventually, but the joy was visible from far away.  Especially in this dark time of year, we need to remember to go outside when it is light whenever we can, even if it is just a quick walk around the block at lunch time.

• Go play.  Don’t go work.  Don’t go work out.  Go play.  With a ball or a frisbee or a game you make up on the spot with two sticks and a Koosh ball.  Is the hallway empty at work?  See if you can hop on one foot the whole way along.  Do the other foot on the way back.  It’s good for your brain and your body.

• Take a nap.  Feeling cranky?  Even fifteen minutes with your eyes closed can help revitalize the afternoon.

• Have a snack.  Another possible reason for that crankiness could be that you’re hungry.  And no, that doesn’t mean you can hit the vending machine for a candy bar.  Try a handful of nuts or some veggies and dip or cheese and crackers.

• Turn off the television/video game/computer/screen.  Enough is enough.  Give your brain a break and your body some movement.

• Go play with your friends.  We all need to connect.  Kids shouldn’t get all the playdates.

Let’s do it.

One moment

I love efficiency.  I think anyone who has ever had to get a kindergartener ready for school in the morning has a certain amount of fondness for it due to the absolute lack of same in the mind of most five-year-olds.  Who knew it could take 45 minutes to put on clean underwear, pants, and a shirt?  But wait!  There are still shoes and socks!

Efficiency culture, however, has its downside.  We get overly focused on how-much-how-fast-how-streamlined it all is.  We had better find yet another way to multitask while driving or reading or working out—if only we could do more in our sleep!!!  Yeah, no.

One of the beautiful things about Pilates is that it helps us be present right now, doing one thing.  We can focus on how putting our feet in the reformer’s straps make our hips feel, how expanding our chests as we inhale into spinal extension lifts our mood, how stacking our bones gives us a sense of stability.  We can slow down and notice.

I could argue that this is a stealth efficiency, that this very process of single-tasking or mindfulness or whatever we choose to call it improves our later performance.  It would even be, in some senses, true.  I’m not going to make that argument, however.  The moment is enough.  We are enough.  Right now.  Just the way we are.  We do our fitness work to learn that one thing, at least I hope so.

Irrational

There are people out there who love exercise for the sake of exercise.  They wake up in the morning excited to run or swim or dance or lift or whatever.  Good on them.  Me, I have to talk myself into it.  I know I am not unusual in this particular way.

We all know lots of good reasons to exercise.  Our brains tell us that we’ll live longer, look better, blah blah blah.  It is certainly good to know all the rational arguments for exercising.  Sometimes, however, it’s not the rational stuff that gets us actually moving.  Our bad selves don’t want to conform to what the teacher says we are supposed to do.  Plus the couch is really comfy and it’s cold outside.

So how do we get moving?  How do we convince ourselves to go get breathless and sweaty and possibly sore?  I deploy the irrational reasons.

Speaking for myself, I don’t have any sense of impending mortality.  Sure, I’m going to die someday, but it still seems like a remote event.  I can’t convince myself that one particular workout is going to make the difference between an independent old age and a pathetic nursing home existence full of pureed vegetables and bingo.  I can’t project myself that far into the future.  I have to go with the more immediate future:  I feel better right away when I hit the spin bike or stick my body in the pool.

Find the love.  Find the emotional satisfaction right in the moment.  That’s a good reason to work out.

Go play.