Thursday 22 September 2011

Wierd Ways to a Better Body

Sorry for the longer than usual gap between the last post and this one. The reasons are because my last post was a Guest Post for the “me, exactly weightloss blog” by Erin Weem at http://meexactly.blogspot.com ( check it out, it’s very good) and then after that I have been away in Palma for a few days.
While I was in Palma, racking my brain as it crisped in the sun or another blog idea, a new blog topic literally fell from the sky. I was in one of those generic, foreign water parks with over-priced entrance, water slides, “dad pants” and at least 2/3 people slipping over on the wet floor. They had a Diving show that they were showing a few times throughout the day and I decided to go and have a watch. While I was in the queue before it started, two men were walking around in speedos. I agree, in normal circumstances, in a water park, men in speedos wouldn’t be so strange or noteworthy. However, these particular men had airbrushed bodies; tanned, waxed and toned to perfection. I am not trying to reveal a guy-crush across the platform of the world wide web. The point I want to raise is that this is something perhaps people would not think about, a sport like diving to get fit. I am not sure what training divers have to endure (if you do then please feel free to let the rest of us know in the comments) but it is obviously physically demanding enough to produce well toned bodies.
Would you normally think about diving as a way to keep fit? Or a way to lose weight? The guys doing the diving were great at what they did; they put on a great show and looked good technically, but the best thing was that they looked like they enjoyed it.
After the water park and the Diving show, I went to a diner show in the evening. And, low-and-behold, I was presented with another example of a weird way to keep fit. The “Pirates” show that I watched was full of dance, gymnastics and contortionists that were all incredibly fit and athletic. The dancing girls did high tempo routines that would tire most people; the gymnasts could bend and fold as if being shaped by someone doing origami and the contortionists had superhuman core strength. The  contortionists in particular really impressed me; what they could do obviously takes hours and hours of training each day. Again, the point is, these are three ways that you may not associate with fitness or first think of if you were to try and get fit/lose weight.
The contortionists at the Pirate Show looked incredibly toned and showed unbeleivable strength doing things like this

I’m not saying we should all go out and try diving/dancing/gymnastics/contortion, but why not? Or, why not something similar?



Little Bit Extra
So , what’s been going on with me?
Went on an easy 5 mile run on Tuesday morning. Does anyone else listen to podcasts and laugh out loud, only to get weir d looks from the people you go past? It happened quite a few times today.
Had a football match in the evening, won 4-2 playing with 10 men for the second half. Very tired afterwards so made sure I had a good stretch and a cold shower after the game.
Wednesday, something unbelievable happened. After over a year of trying, I finally got my girlfriend to come running with me. It helped show me the struggles some people might have if they try to get fit and how they might quit early on. My girlfriend really struggled and we had to stop a few times. We managed to go 2 miles altogether and I am really proud. I do empathise with people who might struggle now, despite all the best intentions. What I think it did as well was to show me how important a supporting friend is. She may well have stopped sooner if I wasn’t there encouraging and saying how well she was doing.
So, if you are the struggling new comer, ask a fitter friend to go with you, whatever activity you want to do. Or, if you’re that fitter friend, think about encouraging friends to start exercising, go with them and offer advice.
Hope this was a little better than last time, if not, you know where the blog stops and this starts, just look for the footsteps.

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