EXERCISE? UGH...
So fun fact.
I strongly dislike “exercise”
(What?!)
As a professional in a movement oriented field, pursuing a wellness career which often entails motivating people to sweat… you would have assumed I’d be infatuated with it, no?
Yet, thinking back...
I never really played sports as a child. I gave softball a good “one year try” and ditched it to continue on more seriously with dance. Dance remained my primary form of exercise from age 7 to 22. In college I attempted to cross-train a little in-between my heavily physical class schedule and outside work, but it was difficult to maintain a routine. It wasn’t until I graduated last year that, for the first time in my life, my days suddenly consisted of spending more hours exercising like a “normal human” than taking dance class.
It was around this time that I also realized.
Wow. This kinda stinks.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good post-workout sweat/feeling/energy but the grind is really awful sometimes. Not to say taking class always felt “amazing” in college. I found inspiration particularly hard to come by on icy winter days, when rolling out of warm sheets at 8 am meant trekking to the same studio with the same people every week at the same time.
However, what would make that trek worth it, was the promise of dance class as a process.
Dance class combines the physical and mental, the spiritual and creative. The end goal is not to just be healthy or fit or feel better about your physique. Dance is about mastering: cultivating skills, playing with time, building aesthetics, manipulating the body, connecting energy to music…
Initially this is why I gravitated towards yoga as an exercise option. For me, it was the closest thing that felt like dancing. Yoga is great, but cardio and strength conditioning are also really necessary . There are aspects of “normal” exercise I still actively find hard to want to do, but I think a lot of people are in the same boat as me.
You’re definitely in the same boat if you have to ask yourself, why do I lose motivation to go to the gym?
Or, why can’t I maintain a certain level of concentration and routine with my fitness?
My observations below might cover
some answers to those questions:
1. We treat our workouts like a chore.
Our workouts have become something to check off on a box of “to-do’s”. They are another part of our day that we must do to keep ourselves healthy. In this sense also, we approach them as a necessary thing and not as a choice. Personal fitness should be something that is individual and holistic.
2. There’s often no meditative “start to finish”.
Endorphins do allow for the body to release, this is true, but workouts often fulfill bodily needs without culminating in peace of mind. Especially if the workout is done quickly, we end up moving our muscles and bones around a whole bunch without ever feeling really satisfied.
3. We haven’t found our “thing” or we’ve lingered from it.
Think about what you liked to do before you had to do? Was it biking outside around your neighborhood? Was it throwing around a baseball with your siblings? How can you insert some aspect of that, back into your fitness life? Find an activity you actually enjoy: a class that makes you feel welcomed, a community that pushes you…