Before I begin with this topic, this post was supposed to be put up last Sunday. It’s this same laid back procrastination that allowed me to skip writing for days, weeks, months right down to a year at a time. However, I will make an effort to be more consistent which is why I am sitting down to write this on a Sunday evening after having finished my second half marathon when I’d much rather curl up with a video game and a chicken salad. If there’s one thing my relatively short fitness journey has taught me it is this: Consistency is Key.
Which brings me to the key question that is incidentally also the title of this blogpost. Why commit to a fitness lifestyle? Well I could rattle off a bunch of facts and figures about how people who exercise more are happier, more productive, have more fulfilling relationships, not to speak of the countless health benefits of being physically active on a regular basis. I can talk about how strength training improves your posture, makes your joints stronger, how muscle mass improves your metabolism, how cardiovascular workouts improve your endurance and stamina, bettering the quality of your sex life and also creating a stronger immune system. Not to mention your heart is a lot less likely to develop a family of cardiac conditions if you regularly engage in any number of cardio exercises from running to swimming to cycling (they say sex is pretty good cardio too so if you can manage 30 minutes of it 4-5 times a week that’s good too).
But you see, I knew all this. I knew it for years. But still I was anything but committed to a fitness lifestyle. Most of us live our lives knowing exactly what is good for us and what we should do, not only when it comes to fitness, but on a number of personal and professional fronts. But that doesn’t necessarily ensure we do it, right? Atleast for me just knowing fitness was good for me wasn’t enough.
For me it was a realisation. That our lives are finite and the bodies that are given to us are even more so. But what is not finite is your potential to shape and strengthen your body, just as your mind. You are born with a body. Now you can either see that as a vessel you have to live within, or you could see it as a tool. And tools can be sharpened. They can be improved on, refined, sculpted, even. And that changed my relationship with fitness. Not the knowledge that I could change my body and it’s limits, but the belief that I could do so. See, knowing is not half the battle. It’s not even a quarter. Any idiot with a library card (or more likely an internet connection) can have knowledge. But belief, now that’s the good stuff.
I am not one of those people who say I don’t care about aesthetics, that fitness is only about being fit for me, not how I look. I am sure there are people like that out there but I am not one of them. It is important to me that I be stronger and faster, but I certainly care about how my fitness regimen helps me look better in a fitted shirt. But if you get down to it, many of us are basically physical beings. We feel that urge in us, to sprint, to jump, to perform feats of strength. Okay maybe most of us don’t but for a lot that’s because we have suppressed that desire. We got ‘civilised’. But trust me, when you unleash that beast, you understand the appeal of the fitness lifestyle. There is something so pure and natural about pushing your body to it’s limits, to the point where that pain is the sweetest sensation you can ever feel.
I have embraced the fitness lifestyle because frankly I am one of those people who needs an obsession at any point in my life. You might not go at it with the same level of addiction. Or you might go at it even harder than I could ever manage. There is no one sizes fits all for this, as for everything else. But here’s the thing. Your body was not meant to waste away at a desk. We are warriors, each one of us, in our own funky way. So pick up that yoga mat or that pair of dumbbells. Or put on those running shoes or boxing gloves or jump in that water. Do whatever. But push yourself. Doesn’t matter if you want to lose weight, stay in shape or if you just want to have a conversation with your body. But chase that feeling.
And that, boys and girls, is the answer to “Why Fitness?”
PS: If anyone is following this blog, you might be happy to know I ran my second half marathon today within my target time of 2 hours 30 minutes, 2:28:15 to be exact. One race at a time!
Let The Funk Flow 