a year in exercise
So, it's been kind of year since I started going to yoga classes. I thought it might be a good time for me to reflect on it.
So, I don't know how my body right now looks different from my body last year. I haven't taken progress pictures. I haven't even weighed myself. I've gotten a couple of comments from people about how I've lost weight, but it doesn't happen often. I wear the same clothes for the most part, plus or minus some new things and active gear. I still have a muffin top that hangs out over the edge of my pants, and I still have a fold underneath my ribs right where my belly gets squished up. My thighs still jiggle when I move them.
But I can tell you all sorts of things about what I can do now that I couldn't do last year.
I can bend my arms from a dead hang -- not enough for a pull up, but my arms bend.
I can run for two miles straight (my knees are not up for 10ks right now).
I can hold downward dog for more than ten seconds.
I can vault over rails and (short) walls.
I can crawl backwards up stairs without my knees touching down.
I can balance on a rail.
I can climb up a 5.8 graded climbing wall, and I can climb up a V1 graded bouldering wall.
Though I have enjoyed exercise-type things before (mostly martial arts), I am learning to appreciate the things I can't do. Martial arts tend to be more artificially gated -- you tried new things when you gained a new belt -- and very repetitive. The things I do now are pretty much all about challenging myself physically all the time.
It can be frustrating. It's pretty much always frustrating. I train parkour in a mixed gender group that is mostly dudes, and I'm almost always the slowest, the weakest, the most easily exhausted. There are basic parkour moves that I have seen dudes nail on their first day that I feel like I am nowhere near getting to. Sometimes I wonder if I should try to count calories on MyFitnessPal or go paleo or something like that and shed pounds in order to make it easier to move my body around. So much of the information and communities women have online about fitness are about losing weight and controlling their eating.
But I think it makes more sense for me to keep on keeping on. I am getting stronger. I am getting better at the things I want to do. Like pretty much everything else, it will take effort and time, and I'm definitely enjoying myself along the way. That's what I'm trying to focus on. My body moves and loves to move. I love to move my body.
It was a gazillion degrees and humid outside today, and I still went to a parkour jam when it was at its hottest because I love it so much. The guys were blowing me away on pretty much every possible metric, but I still jumped, I still climbed, I still crawled backwards up some stairs.
It was awesome.
P.S. I love this ad of women doing sports and being sweaty and round and unapologetic.
This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/594331.html. You can comment there using OpenID or you can comment here if you prefer. :)
comments there
So, I don't know how my body right now looks different from my body last year. I haven't taken progress pictures. I haven't even weighed myself. I've gotten a couple of comments from people about how I've lost weight, but it doesn't happen often. I wear the same clothes for the most part, plus or minus some new things and active gear. I still have a muffin top that hangs out over the edge of my pants, and I still have a fold underneath my ribs right where my belly gets squished up. My thighs still jiggle when I move them.
But I can tell you all sorts of things about what I can do now that I couldn't do last year.
I can bend my arms from a dead hang -- not enough for a pull up, but my arms bend.
I can run for two miles straight (my knees are not up for 10ks right now).
I can hold downward dog for more than ten seconds.
I can vault over rails and (short) walls.
I can crawl backwards up stairs without my knees touching down.
I can balance on a rail.
I can climb up a 5.8 graded climbing wall, and I can climb up a V1 graded bouldering wall.
Though I have enjoyed exercise-type things before (mostly martial arts), I am learning to appreciate the things I can't do. Martial arts tend to be more artificially gated -- you tried new things when you gained a new belt -- and very repetitive. The things I do now are pretty much all about challenging myself physically all the time.
It can be frustrating. It's pretty much always frustrating. I train parkour in a mixed gender group that is mostly dudes, and I'm almost always the slowest, the weakest, the most easily exhausted. There are basic parkour moves that I have seen dudes nail on their first day that I feel like I am nowhere near getting to. Sometimes I wonder if I should try to count calories on MyFitnessPal or go paleo or something like that and shed pounds in order to make it easier to move my body around. So much of the information and communities women have online about fitness are about losing weight and controlling their eating.
But I think it makes more sense for me to keep on keeping on. I am getting stronger. I am getting better at the things I want to do. Like pretty much everything else, it will take effort and time, and I'm definitely enjoying myself along the way. That's what I'm trying to focus on. My body moves and loves to move. I love to move my body.
It was a gazillion degrees and humid outside today, and I still went to a parkour jam when it was at its hottest because I love it so much. The guys were blowing me away on pretty much every possible metric, but I still jumped, I still climbed, I still crawled backwards up some stairs.
It was awesome.
P.S. I love this ad of women doing sports and being sweaty and round and unapologetic.
This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/594331.html. You can comment there using OpenID or you can comment here if you prefer. :)
comments there