Coping With Exercise

This blog should also be titled "How My Body Is Telling Me That I'm Getting Older or Maybe I Should Just Learn to Stretch."

I'm usually not the person to stick to an exercise regime. I have no self-discipline whatsoever, so my usual attempts at exercising usually fail after two tries. Well, maybe not fail exactly, but more like I just give up and tell myself to "be happy with my body image." My only success this past year was working out at the school because resources were available at my fingertips whenever I want them. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I tried to jog around the gym for about 10 minutes and then walk around for five and then another run for another five. After that, I pull out a mat and work on floor exercises to tone my body. (Note: I do stretch before and after this routine). The only times I missed my exercise routine is if I worked past six o'clock on those days.

Lately, my attempts to get into shape in time for my wedding were rewarded with my body sending out signals to stop fooling myself. I walked around the 2.7km trail at Langara and my calves are sore. I went swimming yesterday for a measly fifteen minutes and further hurt my calves, plus I was huffing halfway down the pool trying to do an impression of the frog swimming. I was listening to head-banger music and got a sore neck from my passionate dancing.

I watched an episode of Daily Planet recently which explored the rigourous training Chinese acrobatics go through. One of the scenes featured two young boys tossing another young boy up high into the air and he attempts to land on his feet onto the shoulders of each tosser. He fails many times and I could see the pain on the boys' faces when the landing goes awry. While this is happening, the strict instructor could be heard saying that children feel no pain. When you are that young, your developing bones allow for such acrobatic acts, but when you are older and your bones are fully formed, you would not be able to accomplish such feats as easily. I disagree to a point; those boys definitely looked like they were in pain. However, I understand her comments from the perspective of someone who used to sprint 50-, 100-, 200-metre dashes in track-and-field easily with little or no pain at all. Now I count my blessings if I dash to pick up the phone without killing myself.

I don't always think our body responses to strenuous exercise are related to age. Just look at how well some senior citizens run marathons or lift weights at the Y. This 76-year-old Japanese man who was smaller than me showed off his cannons at the Y's gym as he demonstrated to me how to use one of the machines.

Yup, maybe how well my body responds to exercise has little to do with age and more to do with mental well-being and self-discipline.

I'm inspired now to go out and do another walk around the park/school/golf course, but only after I blog-surf, write an e-mail, check out Facebook...