Body Boost: Exercise CAN Be Fun (Really, We Tried It!)

Having a healthy body involves a lot: work, knowledge and even luck. The nice part is that work – as in, working out – has known positive effects like reducing breast cancer incidence and improving cardiovascular health! Looking great, feeling great – those are the benefits. How to get going when you’re not into sweating?

 

 

Here’s our suggestion du jour: make it fun. If it’s fun, you’ll want to do it more. Anything that gets you moving can count as working out and is just as good as hitting the equipment at the gym. Here are a few suggestions to help get you going from our collective experience…

 

 

• Find something that works for you. “I start every workout listening to the same Beatles song. It has percussion running 16th notes on a cowbell. [That’s fancy talk for really, really fast.] I hear it and think, ‘I have to move – now!’” And hey, who doesn’t appreciate more cowbell!?

 

• Make it special. “I have ‘magic shoes’ that I only wear when working out. They are a trigger. I put them on and suddenly I feel strong and capable instead of the lazy I felt a few minutes earlier. I call them my Wonder Woman sneakers.”

 

• Change something. Hey, if Taylor Swift can do dubstep, you don’t have to just listen to your usual podcast. Take on some musical style you’ve never explored before.

 

• Be adventurous. Take on something a little out there. Rock climbing? Kickboxing? “I like to kick butt. Even if it’s just imaginary.” Heck yes. Why not?

 

• Or be less adventurous: Walking is a wonderful exercise for people of all shapes, sizes and ages. Start small. Park as far away from the door as you can, every time you park. Work up to walking farther each day.

 

•  Be unique. Try something off the beaten path. The unusual is getting more common. Some fitness centers offer pole-dancing classes, silks and aerials, hula-hooping and wall-to-wall trampolines. Revisit some of those things you loved doing as a kid.

 

• Be a teamplayer. There’s no need to go it alone. Find a workout buddy and walk together or go to that dance class as a team. Having someone counting on you being there will help get you going. Got a little fight in ya? Maybe give your competitive side a workout and find the nearest pick-up game of basketball or join a local soccer team.

 

Armed with these suggestions, you now have a few more ideas in your back pocket to make an ordinary day’s health a little less ordinary and a lot more healthy. Enjoy yourself and get moving!

 

 

 

 

 

Originally published 7/22/13 on mammographykc.com.