Thursday, February 10, 2011

February 10: The Joy of Exercise

        Once upon a time I loved to exercise; I just didn't know it.  As a kid I loved to swim at Memorial Pool – I'd dive again and again, pretending I was a dolphin.  I'd spend hours in my little front yard doing somersaults.  During the summer I'd pedal my bike to Memorial Park where I learned to play t-ball, then softball (on Diamond 5 I learned how to really smack the ball).             

        Somewhere along the way, though, I lost the joy of exercise.  For a laundry list of reasons, I lost self-confidence and tried to fade away.  I stopped going to the pool, I stopped playing softball, and I stayed inside. 

        Fast forward to today.  I often tell people that, having gone through cancer treatment and given birth to three children, there is no part of me which hasn't been examined, poked, or prodded, and therefore I have little fear of humiliation from relatively ordinary things.  The result of this – along with a ton of mental and emotional work – is that I have found joy in exercise again.

         Last night at the Euclid Sports Plant, I watched several dozen young men run conditioning and agility drills under the guidance of the extraordinarily talented and generous Mac Stephens.  The sounds, the movement, the thud of the athletes' footsteps were miraculous!  Different skill levels all exercising to their potential.  I had the good fortune to talk with Jermaine about my conditioning program and to thank him for helping me regain confidence.  One of the greatest moments on this journey was sweating through a plank and having Jermaine right down there with me, believing in me.

          This morning at the Euclid Family Y, I participated in my beloved Women On Weights class, and today's turned out to be one of my favorite classes!  The instructor, David, is understated, incredibly encouraging, and patient.  His only shortcoming is an apparent inability to count.  J  When counting reps, he has a bad habit of counting 1-2-3-3-4-5-5-5-6-6, etc.  Sometimes it seems we'll never get to 15!  Today we worked with dumbbells, resistance bands, and a host of machines.  My favorite was a drill which involved a step, a medicine ball, catching, squats, and throwing.  It wasn't just exercise, it was FUN.

         I've got some little goals in mind: I want to kayak (once I fit in the little kayak).  I want to parasail.  I want to hang glide.  I want to ride the family slides at Kalahari (I've lost enough weight to no longer be prohibited!).  I want to climb at the Cleveland Rock Gym – imagine a rock wall less than a mile from my house!  I want to be physically able to run the drills with the athletes at the Sports Plant.  I want to play whirley ball.  I'd like to play on an adult softball team.  I want to attend summer camp with my family and participate in all the sports (archery, canoeing, hiking, you name it!).

        My most intimidating goal: I want to wear a pretty dress and go dancing with my husband.  It would take a lot of courage for me, a lousy dancer with poor body image, to give it a whirl.  But life's short, and I've survived cancer and three kids.  Surely dancing can't be that bad.

 

~Karin

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