Someone recently said to me “I’d bet you regularly exercised
at some time in your life”. I don’t know
what precipitated that statement because I’m neither particularly toned nor
muscular, but my first answer was “definitely not”.
The fact is I have a love/hate relationship with
exercise. I know it’s important for
health, especially as we age but the idea of feeling compelled to do healthy
things definitely ruffles my feathers, rubs me the wrong way and seriously
irritates me. But the conversation
caused me to ponder my statement.
I lives in Brooklyn and Manhattan until I was 25. If you don’t know, walking is a necessary
part of living in those boroughs. I
walked to school, walked up stairs in school, walked to my friends’ houses and
to shop. If you took a subway, you
walked to and from the station. When I
was older I walked long distances just to see what I could see. When I was in college, and lived in
Manhattan, I sometimes rode my bike from the lower east side to the 59th
St. Bridge. I found it relaxing, on
Sundays, to ride around the deserted financial district. Also at the time, my best friend and I went
to public folk dances where we danced for at least two hours.
My first stop in Georgia was at UGA where I found walking
was necessary no matter where you parked your car and a good bit of it was
uphill. I never felt a need to join
organized exercise classes or venues.
Since living in rural Georgia getting exercise as a part of life is
really non-existent, unless you’re a farmer or physical laborer. So recognizing the “should” factor, I have
tried. I have belonged to 5 different
gyms. 3 went out of business and I have
not been to the other two for quite some time.
At one particularly energetic time in my life I walked regularly at the
YMCA outside track. It was almost fun
when the weather was pleasant (which is about 30 minutes a year in Waycross),
but when the weather changes…..
I don’t like regular gyms because they are full of people
who really exercise. Also, it gets
boring. I’ve tried watching a movie on
my phone, but by the time I get it working, I’ve lost interest. The gym has many many TVs situated in front
of the bikes, but I haven’t figured out how to change channels and the shows
that are on are deadly. I have also
tried Yoga on more than one occasion, Zumba, and Curves. My favorite was Zumba but alas both those
things disappeared with the Pandemic (at least the type of Zumba and Yoga that
works for me). Curves or “exercise for
idiots” also closed. I live too far from
the Y now, and walking in my current neighborhood is fraught with peril—dogs (who
just might be feral) roam freely, cars speed heedlessly, and Confederate flags
proudly displayed.
I’ll probably try again if the right thing comes along. Fortunately, as a Senior Citizen, insurance
provides membership at no cost (or unfortunately, since I have no compelling
reason to use the membership).
Hopefully, I’ll still have a salvageable muscle left to tone.
