Thoughts on Exercise
So I got up today, did some studying, made lunch, did some more studying, and then decided to go for a leisurely walk.
But as I was making my way down the stairs, and down the road to wherever I could go that I could remember my way back home, it occurred to me that I had chosen to go for a walk. I wanted to exercise.
(Trying this thing out, bear with me!!)
Anyways, I found this very strange. This was the first time in my entire life that I had actually wanted to do any physical activity, other than swimming. I know this has a lot to do with going to the gym, and how that has affected me physically, and I guess on how I view it all too (I'm trying to get healthy, and have anything more than a horrifically sub-par level of fitness).
I thought about how some people go through school, and come out of it, completely put off any form of exercise for a long time (and, like I am now, will have to slowly re-introduce themselves to it in a more positive way). I was one of those people.
At school, I was made to loathe sport class. It was physical and emotional torture, and nothing else.
And then I thought to myself why that was. I have only a handful of positive memories of 'physical education'. These were either the incredibly rare uses of a pool, or use of a jungle gym, or use of this little gym that was a short bus ride away from school. So my good memories of PE were of 'leisurely' exercise. Raw physical doing. Where one was able to go at their own pace, and progress on their own, and not have their ability compared to that of everyone else.
But the other 99% of classes were the dreaded: competitive sports. Hockey, netball, rounders, non-contact rugby. I hated them all. Even cross-country running had you pitted against everyone else, forced to comply to the teachers' barbaric rules about never stopping running when I felt like jumping into the river after the first half a minute of their sadistic setup. I mean, I didn't give a shit about it, I wasn't one of their future gold medalists, and they knew it. But, in a way, I understand why schools would have us do these things as opposed to using a gym every week. The kind of exercise I like is kind of mindless, just doing the same thing over and over, and I don't know if everyone else is able to 'zone out' like I can. And competitive sport probably engages the brain to do strategy.
So I started to think about how the class as a whole must have felt about these sports. It's probably a bell-curve, with the vast majority of people not really caring either way. They won't make a career of it, but they aren't unfit enough to despise it. Then a few people who always win, because this is what they're good at. They form the sports teams and all that. Then us. We are probably dangerously unfit, and always lose. Hitting a ball with a bat is a massive accomplishment for us. First of all, the experience of moving about for more than 30 seconds is physically horrific for us, but the competitive aspect leaves us totally demoralised, and puts us off for the duration of our school lives.
Then I got back home, and thought about how, despite having to walk uphill and all that, it was an enjoyable experience.
I thought about how, if my escapade had been organised by a school, it would have been a brisk run, with the threat of an academic punishment for slowing to a walk at any point (I hate running. I still won't use the treadmill at the gym). The outing would also have been at least twice as long as I made it. So, there would be the physical pain of having to keep running way past my ridiculously low stamina level, but also the emotional pain of knowing I had so much further to go.
And the last, final flourish, it would have been a timed event, so everyones' names would be drawn up in order, and I could see my own name sat right there in the bottom few.
If it was a school class, I would have come out physically defeated, demoralised, and feeling joyous at the thought of spending the rest of the week as sedentary as possible, just dreading the next time. But today, I came home feeling... refreshed. I thought about how this kind of thing was making me healthy, about how many calories I probably used, how it was a lovely early-evening break from my revision, and how I want to do it again. And that, personally, is how I think exercise should be for everyone.
And to be completely honest, I'm glad I gave exercise a second chance. I feel it's a good thing that I took another look around, and found ways of getting fit and healthy IN MY OWN TIME, and ON MY OWN, without having my (may I say, very poor) abilities compared to everyone else around me, and be labelled as a 'winner' or a 'loser'. Yes, right now when I use a machine at the gym, I set the weights to 10kg from about 35, but I don't care. I'm not being graded based on how well I list weights compared to everyone else in there. I'm making my OWN progress, and already seeing and feeling results.
To sum up, essentially, I do feel that there is room for people to feel positively about exercising, even after a life of aversion.
But as I was making my way down the stairs, and down the road to wherever I could go that I could remember my way back home, it occurred to me that I had chosen to go for a walk. I wanted to exercise.
(Trying this thing out, bear with me!!)
Anyways, I found this very strange. This was the first time in my entire life that I had actually wanted to do any physical activity, other than swimming. I know this has a lot to do with going to the gym, and how that has affected me physically, and I guess on how I view it all too (I'm trying to get healthy, and have anything more than a horrifically sub-par level of fitness).
I thought about how some people go through school, and come out of it, completely put off any form of exercise for a long time (and, like I am now, will have to slowly re-introduce themselves to it in a more positive way). I was one of those people.
At school, I was made to loathe sport class. It was physical and emotional torture, and nothing else.
And then I thought to myself why that was. I have only a handful of positive memories of 'physical education'. These were either the incredibly rare uses of a pool, or use of a jungle gym, or use of this little gym that was a short bus ride away from school. So my good memories of PE were of 'leisurely' exercise. Raw physical doing. Where one was able to go at their own pace, and progress on their own, and not have their ability compared to that of everyone else.
But the other 99% of classes were the dreaded: competitive sports. Hockey, netball, rounders, non-contact rugby. I hated them all. Even cross-country running had you pitted against everyone else, forced to comply to the teachers' barbaric rules about never stopping running when I felt like jumping into the river after the first half a minute of their sadistic setup. I mean, I didn't give a shit about it, I wasn't one of their future gold medalists, and they knew it. But, in a way, I understand why schools would have us do these things as opposed to using a gym every week. The kind of exercise I like is kind of mindless, just doing the same thing over and over, and I don't know if everyone else is able to 'zone out' like I can. And competitive sport probably engages the brain to do strategy.
So I started to think about how the class as a whole must have felt about these sports. It's probably a bell-curve, with the vast majority of people not really caring either way. They won't make a career of it, but they aren't unfit enough to despise it. Then a few people who always win, because this is what they're good at. They form the sports teams and all that. Then us. We are probably dangerously unfit, and always lose. Hitting a ball with a bat is a massive accomplishment for us. First of all, the experience of moving about for more than 30 seconds is physically horrific for us, but the competitive aspect leaves us totally demoralised, and puts us off for the duration of our school lives.
Then I got back home, and thought about how, despite having to walk uphill and all that, it was an enjoyable experience.
I thought about how, if my escapade had been organised by a school, it would have been a brisk run, with the threat of an academic punishment for slowing to a walk at any point (I hate running. I still won't use the treadmill at the gym). The outing would also have been at least twice as long as I made it. So, there would be the physical pain of having to keep running way past my ridiculously low stamina level, but also the emotional pain of knowing I had so much further to go.
And the last, final flourish, it would have been a timed event, so everyones' names would be drawn up in order, and I could see my own name sat right there in the bottom few.
If it was a school class, I would have come out physically defeated, demoralised, and feeling joyous at the thought of spending the rest of the week as sedentary as possible, just dreading the next time. But today, I came home feeling... refreshed. I thought about how this kind of thing was making me healthy, about how many calories I probably used, how it was a lovely early-evening break from my revision, and how I want to do it again. And that, personally, is how I think exercise should be for everyone.
And to be completely honest, I'm glad I gave exercise a second chance. I feel it's a good thing that I took another look around, and found ways of getting fit and healthy IN MY OWN TIME, and ON MY OWN, without having my (may I say, very poor) abilities compared to everyone else around me, and be labelled as a 'winner' or a 'loser'. Yes, right now when I use a machine at the gym, I set the weights to 10kg from about 35, but I don't care. I'm not being graded based on how well I list weights compared to everyone else in there. I'm making my OWN progress, and already seeing and feeling results.
To sum up, essentially, I do feel that there is room for people to feel positively about exercising, even after a life of aversion.