Friday Book Report: Tribe

One of the things I have been thinking about a lot is community and how it relates to fitness.  In this context, I read Sebastian Junger’s book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.  I am not sure what I expected, but the book was not it, not that that is a bad thing.

Essentially, Junger spends the book ruminating on why we have so much angst given our amazing wealth as a society.  It comes down to the fact that we are, in his view, deeply disconnected.  He writes, “Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary.  Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.” (p. xvii)

He explores this thesis through lenses ranging from traditional Native American culture to war-torn cities, finding that what we seem to need most is to be together, working for some common good.

So:  today’s fitness goal is to work with someone on something that makes the world a better place.

There's a Queen song about this...

On some level, we don’t do fitness for reasons, or at least not the kind that make a handy list.  We do it because we like it.  Maybe not every second of it, but we like it.  And one thing leads to another.

I love my bike.  The better shape I’m in, cardio-wise, the more fun it is to ride my bike, so I end up doing spin or elliptical training or (trying to) run or swimming to cross-train.  The stronger I am, the faster I can get up the hills, so there I am, lifting weights.  Then there is that whole day-after feeling of tightness and I need to say hello to my Pilates equipment and my yoga mat.

But every time, what I go back to is the pedaling, the pure joy of being outside, moving, in the sun and wind.  That’s why I do it.

Why do you?

Growing

Coping with change can be difficult.  Like, say, when our favorite yoga teacher changes schedules and we can’t make it to her class anymore.  Or when our relatives come to visit and we suddenly have different food in the house.  Or when we realize that our old weight routine is not a challenge anymore and we have to adapt.  (Good changes require as much adaptation as bad ones.)

Change happens all the time.  The body we work out with today is not the same as yesterday’s body or tomorrow’s body.  Every workout is different.  We just need to show up and work with what we’ve got, today, this minute.

Practicing with our different selves every day helps us grow.

One Two Three, One Two Three

A question we may not ask ourselves enough when it comes to fitness is:  what is fun?  So many of us do our fitness activities with a clenched-jaw determination to Get It Done.  It doesn’t have to be like that all the time (except for lunges:  lunges are always pretty much evil).

We can get fit doing anything from ballroom dancing to deep sea diving to flipping truck tires.  Given that, it makes sense to choose among all the things the ones we actually enjoy doing.  Hate dancing?  Run around instead.  Love loud music?  Welcome to zumba!

Beyond choosing a way of fitness we like, we can also choose ways to make the parts we like less somewhat less objectionable.  A partner in crime is one good way to make the time go faster.  Working out somewhere beautiful (hi yoga on the beach!) can do wonders.  Fancy new shoes can be surprisingly motivating and may, as we believed when we were kids, make us go faster.  And never underestimate the power of disco, or heavy metal, or punk, or hip hop, or whatever music gets you ready to gasp along.

The point is:  get out and play.  It’s good for you and fun, too.

Monday Workout: TRX

This week’s workout uses the TRX.  If you don’t have access to a TRX, you can use dumbbells and do regular versions of the exercises.  The goal is three rounds, completing 10 to 20 repetitions of each exercise per round.

TRX:  squats

add jump

add 1 leg

sprinter start

add jump

hamstring curls

rows

low

1 arm

chest press

add 1 leg

deltoid fly

add TY

roll out

plank

crunch

oblique

add pushup

Friday Book Report: Sociology of Sport

In the wake of the events around Colin Kaepernick, I finally got motivated to look up the work of Harry Edwards, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley.  Sociology of Sport did not disappoint, and, in spite of being published in 1973, remains insightful and almost prescient.

Sports, he argues, occur within our cultural context.  The American “sports creed” includes the beliefs that sports build character, promote discipline, encourage healthy competition, enhance physical and mental fitness, advance religious/moral precepts, and develop nationalism.  The implications and challenges of this creed as well as an exploration of how it might be affected by social change and in turn effect social change are the subjects he addresses throughout the rest of the book.

Additionally, he views the field through the lens of the issues facing African-American athletes.  He makes some attempt to include women in his analysis, but since he was writing just at the onset of Title IX, there was not much to analyze at that point.  It was fascinating to see both how far we have come and how far we have not come.

Anyone interested in the “machinery” of sports in our society would do well to start with this excellent resource.

Love your body...

While I was away, I missed my Pilates equipment.  My body needs to move with the precision of Pilates.  It needs the stretching and lengthening.  It needs mindful attention brought to what it is doing. 

What else might our bodies be missing?  What can we give them today to make them feel nurtured, strong, loved?