Ive been discussing and thinking a lot about fitness and health the latest months. What is healthy and whats is not. What is fitness and what do you strive for when you go on the fitness path.
A lot of people seem to want to be fit, but have trouble getting there. You never get to the gym, or you start with a personal trainer for a couple of weeks, work hard but the quit.
Also society in whole seem to be going through a big health trend. I see nothing wrong with health awareness rising but I also see some troubling things.
It doesnt really seem to me like health is the main purpose of health anymore, health is more something that you want to show off to others, health is a lifestyle and an image. This also apply to fitness, its more an image that you want to give others, and an identity you want to have. I see people discussing health and fitness and trying to get there, not because they want to eat healthy or exercise healthy. They just want the result, and get there fast.
The problems I see here is, getting there fast isnt healthy most of the times. Dropping huge amounts of body mass fast or training hard four or six times per week from a starting point of nothing isnt healthy. Youre gonna break, and fast.
Also the thing of achieving a health image just because you feel that society expects that of you, or maybe you expect that of yourself isnt very motivating or fun, at least if your not as unhealthy that you could die tomorrow of obesity.
My main thought here is around the fun part though. If you want to exercise, what a boring word by the way, try something you like. There is so many ways to move, so what stops you to move?
I think what stops me to move sometimes is the expectations of how to move. Adults are expect to walk on the pavement in and orderly fashion. We are not expected to squat on the bus station, or hang from lamp posts. But these things are really fun.
My experiment the latest year have been to see the world around me as a child would have. You never see a child stop moving, they explore everything in their surroundings, climbs, runs, walks, jumps. All basic movements we humans can do. Also they are having serious fun getting from point A to B.
This has been my way of "exercising" everytime I just let go of what exercise should look like and just take in whats around me and how I can play with it, time just flies, and I promise you, I get tired and sore as I would have been in the gym afterwards.
I realize this might not be for everyone, but go out of your comfort zone in your movement, try new things, and first of all try to find something you really enjoy, whether it is the gym, walking, dancing or climbing trees!
PS. Dont leat fear of being bad at something stop you! You should suck at something youre trying for the first time, then you know that the development potential is great and get the most growth! DS.