Finding something you enjoy🙂

This weeks buzz is about finding something you enjoy outside of "structured exercise". Outside of going to a fitness class, a trainer, a gym or anything that is deemed traditional exercise.  Finding other activities in life that allow you to move, by doing something you like, without thinking its "exercise" are so beneficial to your health! 

Take it from me...my life is fitness. I'm in my gym from 6am-6pm MOST days of the week (its a real small studio too)! So, all I see all day are weights, barbells, dumbbells and people lifting these things over and over again. I do enjoy lifting weights, doing HIIT workouts and just being in the gym in general...BUT, I am human and I do get sick of the sounds of weights once in a while. Which is why finding activities OUTSIDE of traditional fitness is so important not only for our mental health, but physical health as well so we do not get "burned out" performing the same bouts of exercise over and over (especially if we don't like to exercise in the first place...AKA MOST people 😉...yes even me sometimes). Finding activites that give you joy will usually result in you doing those for a really long time. 

Que the Pickleball shoutout now! As many of you know, Pickleball is my outlet. It's my form of exercise away from the gym that I'm just obsessed with (like most pickleballers these days). It gets me moving, jumping, running, leaping, diving, sprinting (if you've seen me play, you know I look like a little kid having so much fun running all over the court). Its a form of exercise that I can do and not even think of it as exercise because I'm having so much fun. We all need to find something like this in life because it will allow us to move our bodies without hating it, without going into it with that "ugh" mentality. Going into knowing you have no idea how long you'll do this for because it's so fun and you'll lose track of time rather than "ugh, this workout class is a hour, I'm not sure I can survive today Becky". With a mindset like that, you'll tend to hate any bouts or forms of exercise and usually give up after a while. 

Finding activities like Pickleball, adult basketball leagues, softball leagues, soccer leagues, hockey leagues, kickball, volleyball, dance classes, yoga, zumba classes, hiking, walking, snowboarding, skiing, snow shoeing, swimming, skating, archery, rucking, bouldering, gymnastics and soooo much more can help you enjoy moving your body more. You will love it. Your body will love it. And your mind will love it making you an overall happier and better person. 

Exercise and movement are both something we need to do our entire lives. It's something we need to do so you can play with your grandkids on the ground, so you can sit on the toilet by yourself in your 80's, so you can go to the grocery store and push around a cart to get food you like to eat rather than eating meals on wheels delivered to your house because you are bedridden. Find something you like to do that involves movement, it'll be good for your mind and soul for the long run...I guarentee it. 

So...this week...I want you to make a plan for yourself to do something you enjoy. Sign up for that basketball league you've been itching to get back into since high school. Go seek out a new activity you've been curious about. Do it for yourself and no one else. It'll make you happy. It'll make you move. And it'll make you the best version of you which is beneficial to everyone around you. Do it and watch the rest happen.

I believe in you👊.

-Nick