Jakob asked me earlier this week when in my life I had reached the point where I liked working out. He has jumped back on the fitness wagon and is not spurred on by a desire to work out. Instead, he is driven by a “need.” He feels he needs to lose weight and that doesn’t happen just by wishing it would happen. So he started a four-week routine this week and each morning he goes downstairs to work out before he gets ready for school.
I was honest with Jakob about my attitude towards
working out. It was only four years ago that I fell in love with working out. I
have been an active person my whole life and I have been fortunate that my weight
has never been a concern for me. I haven’t always liked the way I felt or
looked in my clothes (or out of them, for that matter) but I have never had to
worry about being overweight. I spent my teen and college years working out as
part of team athletics and staying conditioned for those teams. As an adult I
have worked out 3-4 days a week and I made that work for me. And then Ed gifted
me a Mirror for Christmas 2019. The Pandemic began three months later, and it
was a perfect storm of opportunity.
I can honestly say that I now love working out! It is
as much a part of my daily schedule as my mug of coffee, and as important to my
overall health routine as brushing and flossing. I so some sort of workout or movement
class seven days a week. I am a nicer, more patient mother and wife when I have
worked out. I work out to release stress and anxiety, and I work out to gain focus.
Yes, I love working out!
As I continue to mourn the loss of the #MirrorLiveCrew,
I am grateful for the progress that I have made in the last four years. My
fitness journey has been one marked by change throughout my varied attempts at
body transformation. And the one thing I know is this: learning to embrace a fitness routine takes
time, patience and an understanding of your own body. Most importantly, it takes
acceptance. Accept that movement and strength training are necessary for the
body as we age. Accept that it will get harder the older we get. And accept
that the same things don’t always work. Muscle memory leads to plateaus and plateaus
lead to boredom and frustration. Accepting that workouts need to be changed up
periodically goes a long way in keeping one on the fitness treadmill. (Pun intended.)
In addition to the strength, cardio, barre, Pilates,
and boxing classes I started taking on the Mirror, I also found yoga and dance
and added them to my weekly repertoire. Last year I added a 15-minute stretch
class to the end of every workout. Four years ago, I could not do a standing
figure four to put my socks on without severe lower back pain. It usually ended
up with me losing my balance and tipping over. Sitting down to put my socks on
was a safer way to go. Today, I can not only do a standing figure four with
excellent balance, but I can also lift my leg up onto the bathroom counter, in
a near standing pigeon pose. It didn’t happen overnight. It took time. It took patience.
Where I once worked out to transform my body, I now
work out largely to maintain. I no longer workout in an unrealistic attempt to
regain my body of yesteryear. I work out for the benefit of future me. The
transformations I am after are now the subtle ones that I believe are more of a
test of my longevity. As I watch the Seniors around me struggle with the
challenges of age, I am committed to not end up in a hospital bed with a broken
hip, ready to die. At my age and moving forward, flexibility is more important
than whether I can bench press any amount of weight.
So, although I may not see new classes being added to
the library of my Lululemon Studio app anymore, I am happy to still be
discovering the benefits of all that I have found there and continue to find
there. (As long as Peloton doesn’t decide to completely get rid of us Mirror/Lululemon
subscribers as they did with our trainers.) And I am grateful to those trainers
that helped get me here.
Thank you:
@lanceaparker – You made me actually LIKE stretching!
@ gerrenliles – for the philosophy that will keep me
going: (paraphrase) It takes a lot
longer to notice progress in your stretch routine than it will to notice progress
in your strength routine.
@theamandabaxter – “If we don’t bend, we break.”
@alexsilverfagan – “Take care of your hips and you
take care of everything else.”
If you don’t stretch on a regular basis, start. TODAY.
Future you will thank you.
