Revery Recommends

[reverie]

Hello fellow penites,

 

As I continue my quest for self-actualization, I decided it was high time I get body back in shape. For those that don't know I used to be a pretty fanatic runner, so much so that I probably did more harm than good. Worse yet, towards the end of my salad days, it wasn't even fun anymore. I could run 10 miles at the drop of a dime. Seven-teen with the right motivation, and even more with a week or two of training, but somewhere in the mix, I forgot how to enjoy it, and it became a chore. So, on my way out of the Army, I said the heck with it and for the last year and half I've been pretty much convalescing from all that physical damage while working on other issues.

 

Anyway, since the mind and body are connected, I figured well what's the good in focusing on the mental aspects if you're just going to let your body go to pot. In my experience, I find life is more stressful and less fun when you're out of shape. So, I've managed to come up with a 3 prong plan to replace my former running regime (and abusive military training too).

 

Prong 1: Bicycle. Yes, the skill that sages have told us that once you learn you never forget. I try to incorporate riding a bike in my weekly schedule as much as possible and or convenient (due to time constraints, some times you need get to multiple places one right after the another quick, and a bike just won't cut it when you're on a deadline.)

 

Prong 2: Ball Room Dancing. Swing, Rumba, Salsa, and some waltz. Two months ago I finally swallowed my pride and started taking dance lessons. I plan on continuing the lessons through the summer to establish a foundation, then when University starts back up I can join one of their clubs for free. My body seems to like Swing and the Waltz the most. Salsa is just plain hard (fast too), and the my natural body rhythm has trouble syncing with the Rumba. I went to a 'mixer' swing dance last night, and kicked up my heels (poorly) for about 2 hours and danced with close to 20 different people. I was very proud myself. In the past I was usually the shy wall-flower type, that stayed as far from the the dance floor as possible. But no more!

 

Prong 3: CAPOEIRA!!! Yes, the Brazilian dancing martial art, itself. On a flunk, I manage to find a school for it that is only 1 mile away from my house, and the tuition is almost sinfully inexpensive. It's hard to beat $4.50 a class. As an added bonus the class make up seems to be 90% women that could also double for gymnast/dancers. I had my reservations at first, as coordination has never been my strong suit. And it's hard to do a cartwheel when you're 50 pounds over-weight. But dang it, towards the end of class I was doing them (more like mis-shapened 'round-offs', but close enough) However to my surprise, I seem to have some natural talent for this art or at least the instructor seemed to think so.

 

Sub-prong: moderate maintenance jogging and stretching through out the week.

 

So, if you have the means, time, and or opportunity, I highly recommend that you try one or all of these movement empowerment activities. I doubt, I'll be able to attend to all three of them once the Fall comes, but for now, it seems I'm lost in another summer's reverie: The Summer of Movement.

 

cheers.

Edited July 10, 2006 by reverie