I Don't Want to Exercise!/My Job is My Exercise!

When I was heavier, the last thing I wanted to hear, was to get more exercise, and till this day, cardio is still a challenge for me.

Moving our bodies on a daily basis is the only way to keep the body agile, reduce or eliminate pain as we age, and keep and/or restore our range of motion. Just like animals get up from resting, and stretch, we need to be doing the same thing. 

First thing in the morning, just like warming up an older car, and throughout the day to help counter all the repetitive and tense muscle activity we do, like sitting and typing. If you have a physical job like me, you still need more movement, but you need movement specifically to counter the constant regular movement, specially stretching for overworked muscles.  Use it or lose it is very true in the body... if we do not take our bodies into all planes of motion and full rotation of joints on a regular basis, they will slowly tighten up, and we will lose the ability to move as freely, creating imbalance in the musculoskeletal body, and allowing connective tissues to tighten and harden, making movement even more challenging.

Movement is also the way to keep our bodies medicine systems working correctly (endocrine), our heart muscle strong, and bones dense (pressure on the bones during movement prevents osteoporosis).

I love lazy yoga, as I call it, (I have also heard the terms gravity yoga or bio-mechanical yoga), singing and dancing. I have an elaborate setup in my kitchen-nook-area these days.  I believe in making it part of my daily life and environment. I dance around my house or office a lot, intentionally, definitely stuff not made for outsiders to see...lol.

Singing exercises my diaphragm, moves internal connective tissues, and focuses my  mind on breath, keeping me in the moment, like mindfulness meditation. Lazy yoga is typically floor based poses working with gravity.  I just lay there. I have recently been incorporating weight training, and bands for more balance in my routine. I started tractioning my back using a Yoga Trapeze many years ago, and it has also become quite a source of fun. I ask a lot of my body physically.  I have no excuses for not exercising, I have everything I need, and the space set up. If I try and skip, it stares at me...lol   I look forward to my morning routine now.  It started with a 10 minute commitment to myself and now is every day 90 min to 2 hours if I can find the time. I have always fought regular intentional exercise, and I still fight cardio.  I know that I will never exercise on a regular basis, if it requires leaving my house into the cold or dark, so I just do everything in my own space.  This way everything is the way I like it, music, lighting, temperature, etc. I don't care what I wear, or what I look like as I move and meditate, and my dog joins me for short snuggles. :)

When I began intentional movement on a daily basis in my life 7 years ago, I never dreamed it would become my favorite part of the day. I wake up extra early if needed, just to make sure I get all the time I want before the phone starts ringing and the rest of the world demands my attention.