I've been thinking about this post for a while, and after lots of percolation, I find myself in the year 2012 writing about an extremely unlikely topic: Exercise.
*Note this is not an accurate depiction of Miette as my personal trainer - anyone who knows my cat knows he would be driving a fully automated child-sized car. He would never be caught expending so much effort on riding a bike.
Like lots of pale bookish types, I always thought I just wasn't cut out to be An Exerciser. It's not so much a lack of motivation to jump around and sweat and then fall down, out of breath (although that's part of it). For me, it was always:
1.) The trappings of exercise: the gym, the clothes, the equipment, the shoes.
I'm not sociable enough to go to a gym, and I don't want a ton of equipment and accoutrement filling up my house.
Keep reading after the jump!
2.) It was deadly tedious.
To feel as if I'd done any work, I had to dedicate at least 45 minutes. It was a slog. This brings us to stumbling block three:
3.) It takes up so much time.
At the end of last Summer, I decided I wanted to try really hard to find a good fit - working a sedentary job, being a bump on a log in cloudy Portland made me certain I needed to find a workout I could do every day. It helped that I knew, from my past flops, what I was looking for.
- Something short and intense.
- Something that required very little equipment.
- Something I could do here, in my home, would be a huge plus.
A friend recommended Zuzana Light's workouts (that link goes to her Youtube channel.) She is the co-founder of Bodyrock TV (* please be forewarned that the ladies on these channels wear pretty tiny clothes to lead the workouts, and they might be a bit too saucy for many sensibilities *)
A choir of angels sang out - THIS IS It! My ideal workout!
The workouts are short (averaging 12-16 minutes) most are bodyweight-only (meaning you only need yourself and a timer) and they are very intense (and I think, very fun - no slogging here.) And (maybe best of all) they are free!
Since September, I've been doing these interval-based workouts 5-6 days a week. I play some Ramones or Stooges or Tears for Fears (hey - Break It Down Again is such a good workout song!) Something like this or this can be knocked out in 20-25 minutes (including time for stretching, etc.) and I feel so good for the rest of the day. I've said goodbye to several dress-sizes since I started, which wasn't my sole intention, but nice.
I'm happy to finally write this post. I thought about all the freelancers, cottage-industry owners, and parents that work at home, and thought there was a chance it might be useful to somebody -The Unlikely Tale of How I Became an Exerciser.
