I am not a naturally athletic person.
But I am an active person.
Growing up we didn't have technology. And although I am an only child, I had heaps of cousins, so we played and fought with the best of them. Living on acres and backing onto a state forest we roamed for kms, and as long as we turned up for meals, no one worried.
My grandmother gave me my love of horses. Once I got my first pony I was off riding for hours on the property and in the forest with no mobile phone, just a dog or two.
I participated in school sports and bore the humiliation and dread of being "last pick".
Imagine growing up in Australia and not being able to swim!? I know the rudimentary skills and can (probably) save myself but lap after lap is out of my skill set....and as soon as the public pool opened, we were swimming for PE and sport.
Anyway, I survived and participated in various sports on a social level, and I've dabbled for many years in martial arts. After the birth of my daughter I joined a gym and started initially with weights, then moving to group fitness, where I became an instructor for Body Pump and Step.
This combined with maintaining a small farm and riding horses kept me pretty fit. I also developed a "love" of fun runs and trail runs. Although those who see me running refer to it as jogging, lol.
I absolutely use exercise to help my mental health.
If I haven't broken a sweat for 2 days I'm not a good person. I can feel my heightened emotions and I just don't "deal" as well with the bumps in the life road.
But gradually as I've aged, and to help cope with job stress, I turned to a more holistic and balanced approach, incorporating a daily yoga practice.
For so long, although I wanted to do a yoga class, I didn't want to drop a cardio or weights workout to fit it in. Now my routine is walking, hiking and yoga with some body weight exercises thrown in.
Apart from the proven benefits to mental health, exercise also helps with the lose of muscle tone and bone density as we age.
The trick is to find something you love, and don't underestimate gardening, playing with your little people or pets.
It's far more important to do a little often, incorporating movement throughout the day, rather than slogging out three, one hour gym sessions a week.
What are your passions? What drives you to exercise? Are you focussed on the looks or the feels?
"Be free to live your best life"
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