Hey everybody! Do you FEEL GOOD today? With only today and one more day to go, I sure hope so! You’re officially in the home stretch, the final straightaway, so plan to finish in style!
In today’s TIP I wanted to share a quick reminder which makes the daily workout effortless: exercise should be fun!
This means, very simply, choose an activity that you enjoy doing and practice regularly, you will inevitably get much better at it – while getting into better shape. If you’re having fun along the way, you won’t even think of it as exercise. In this way, being active becomes a part of your life, and doesn’t feel like a chore you “should” do.
I also highly encourage you to try new things from time to time. This is not only a great way to discover fun new activities, but also a great opportunity to meet other like-minded, healthy, active people and also put to functional use whatever form of exercise you may have been practicing.
For instance, just today I went to my first Paragym class, and it was a blast! This particular session was focused on Parkour/freerunning movements and I absolutely loved learning these, while also discovering that my body can quickly learn to do impressive jumps and rolls I had never tried before. Paragym (which I stumbled upon recently while online) has a unique school of thought that you’re unlikely to find elsewhere: their mission is to help people learn to move better, to make all forms of acrobatics accessible to people of all ages, by emphasizing the importance of postural alignment and the development of body awareness. By the end of just one class, we all did an assisted backflip (including people in their 40s and 50s, incredibly)! I highly recommend it!!
Another time I had joined an Ultimate Frisbee league and had a blast picking up a new, challenging, fast-paced, no-contact, self-officiated sport. It was truly a fun, playful experience!
On yet another occasion, Jackie and I went on a challenging 4-hour hike at the Parc d’environnement naturel de Sutton, in the Eastern Townships.
Aside from constantly trying new permutations and combinations of common exercises and workouts, I’ve also taken classes in Olympic weightlifting, as well as dabbled in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai Kickboxing.
Each one of us has sports or activities that they’re curious about and has wanted to try. I say just go for it – you may even discover a new joy or passion!
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
–Dale Carnegie (American writer, lecturer and developer of many famous courses)
Play makes us human.
–Peter Gray, Ph.D. (developmental psychologist, research professor and author)
Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.
–Michael Jordan (one of the greatest basketball players of all time)