I rarely write about fitness. This is unusual given that it’s such a huge part of my life. Five to six days a week for as far back as I can remember, I’ve been working out. I started jogging at age eleven when I became possessed by the urge to strap on my Sears velcro sneakers and dash around the block, which nearly killed me.
I was never fast — I remain pitifully slow, actually — but I am self-disciplined, have a lot of energy and am naturally hard wired for meaningless bouts of pain. I’ve since run a marathon, several half marathons and quarter marathons. I eventually transitioned into Ashtanga and Kundalini yoga which I practiced for eleven years before taking up mat Pilates. Then I moved to Lexington, Virginia, which at the time didn’t have the most electrifying fitness opportunities so I got my certification and started teaching at the university here in town, where I’ve taught twice a week since 2007. I eventually phased out of mat Pilates after I tired of its overemphasis on the core (mine was starting to resemble that of a lumberjack’s). Now I teach my own thing called Movement Fusion, a grab bag of — grating fitness word alert!– “methodologies” that have influenced me over the years: Pilates, aerobics, Kundalini and lately, Tracy Anderson moves. It’s pretty much the ADD of classes that also happens to be quite popular among the girls at the college.
The reason I rarely write about fitness is because as a general topic of discussion, I find it kinda sententious (writing this post is like pulling teeth), even though I spend many, many hours thinking about it: how to structure my classes, keeping moves fresh, reading exercise books, making playlists, planning my own workouts, investing in DVDs, struggling to maintain certifications.
I think some of my trepidation stems from my inherent bias toward “fitness people” as a whole. I’m afraid people will think I”m cheesy (busted!), not very bright (see: Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading)…
…and completely obsessed with my health (*cough, cough*).
And fitness professionals? Most harbor a faint maniacal gleam in their eye and stand too close to you when talking.
What is my point? My point is that I am afraid I have reached the point of no return in my fitness evolution. A couple of weeks ago I found myself here…
Game over, man, game over.
I’ll write more about this later after I’ve wrapped my head around it.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
i love the fact that your actually doing something about your fitness..as to where the rest of us just sit around and bitch..kudos to you jessie..you make me wanna get off my ass..almost!
Gotta love that word “almost.” Ha ha!
I have to say I’m very excited to hear about Piloxing. I did kickboxing for almost two years before the gym I now rarely attend stopped offering it. Just think of the blog material it’s going to give you!
Be proud to be fit! Seriously… I wish you wrote *more* about this. Exercise and health are so important. Good for you for bringing fun fitness activity to your part of the world.
Piloxing sounds flipping awesome.
Pillow boxing? On the pill and detoxing?
hmmm… what can it be?
Love the post, indeed. No teeth pulled here.
This sounds weird, but I was totally going to request you do a fitness post as you seem quite… fit. I am suddenly single-parenting my toddler and struggle mightily with ways to exercise after he is asleep. I bought an elliptical on craigslist (I seriously LOVE elliptical-ing) and go to town on it for 40 minutes to an hour every night. That said, my body still feels so wrecked from pregnancy and a difficult birth — when I do sit-ups I can hear my hip bones cracking like dry corn in the wind and my abs feel like they fell out my backside during labor. Anyways, any ideas for at-home workouts that whip a formerly very athletic person who may be about fifteen pounds overweight back into fighting shape? I mean that — I want to be able to kick someone’s ass if need be. But mostly I would like to feel nimble again. I keep tripping over things and falling into walls and shit. I blame my core.
I will write a post just for you, Lauren! Consider it done.
Did that post ever get written? ‘Cause I’m totally interested!
I did write it, but then I deleted it. Suffice to say, Piloxing is a fun class to take, but I don’t want to teach it.
“Game over, man, game over!” fav line from “Aliens”, delivered by Bill Paxton’s character, Hudson!
You know it, Brenda! Aliens is only like my most favorite movie EVAH!