An exercise/movement premise

[nancylebov]

I realized very recently that what gets me to exercise is whether it makes moving more of a pleasure, and, of course, if it's a pleasure in itself.

Any hint of "prove you're a worthwhile person by how much you can make yourself endure" or "not being fat is the most important thing in the world"[1] is apt to be demotivating.

It might be a good thing if being able to react well in emergencies[2] were a strong motivation for me, but the truth is, I've had a pretty easy life, and the only thing that motivates me in that range is wanting to be able to walk safely on ice.

So, what tends to increase your pleasure in movement? Do you know of any systems organized around enjoyment?

[1] I know they never say that, but if an exercise system has fat loss as the only or first reason listed for engaging in it, that's how I interpret it.

[2] This interview with Scott Sonnon is absolutely the most rational thing I've seen on the subject. He's focused very hard on doing things that work rather than things that seem as though they might indicate that something will work. And his emphasis that the best exercise program is one that you will keep doing, both because you're willing to stay with it and because it doesn't hurt you is what inspired this post.

Comments

[redbird]

Agreed that the best exercise program is one that you'll keep doing and that doesn't hurt. That's not quite what Sonnon said: people will sometimes stick with exercise programs that hurt. (That's not always a bad thing--consider PT--but it may be, and not everyone groks that pain can be the body's way of saying "stop before you break something.")

I do turn out to have a certain amount of "prove/show off how much you can do" in my exercise motivation. But that's idiosyncratic, and possibly unhelpful even for me.

[schemingreader]

I agree about the fat loss thing. The problem is that nearly every really fun exercise is sold as fat loss. What I mean is, I love things that are really strenuous, like weight training, and all the how-to literature about it is above all about changing body composition from fat to muscle. I hate to read about how I should go get measured with calipers, when I can measure my progress easily by how much weight I can pick up. Even though I like it the best, I have had to push past my feelings about being surrounded by mirrors and comparing my body to other people's bodies. It does provide a huge endorphin rush and sometimes an almost post-orgasmic sensation of trembling in the limbs when done a certain way. (If you want to hear more, I can gush more about it and provide links!)

But even swimming, an exercise I adore, pure fun, is something people do to stay/become slim. You'd think, since so many people have memories of swimming as a special summertime activity in childhood, that we could admit to loving it for its own sake, and do it for the pleasure, but I began to feel like I was lazy because I wasn't doing interval training. (Not that interval training isn't fun, done right--in college I took a class in swim conditioning that was all intervals, and I used to emerge from the water high as a kite.)

Some people do yoga for enlightenment, but I find that troubling, like a big-time cultural appropriation. But doing it for health sometimes requires a suspension of disbelief...anyway yoga can be rewarding, because it's often difficult and it always requires concentration.

I think a lot of people dance for fitness, and that's a form of movement that's fun in and of itself. True runners also enjoy their sport, sometimes so much that it's dangerous. (I think that's the real reason there's such a high injury rate from running.) I've only had a few really good experiences with dance and none with running, though I've flirted with it a lot. The right teacher for an aerobics class can make it incredibly enjoyable--even the classes on stationary bikes were great when I had a teacher urging us to pedal past the fields of blooming lavender in Provence.

[nancylebov]

Additional gushing about weight training: I'm definitely interested in reading it.

Total Immersion is a system based on swimming more efficiently. I can't promise that they never mention fat loss, but that's certainly not what it's about.

The founder was a lousy swimmer, but loved the sport. He eventually became a swimming coach, and he realized that the good swimmers swam in a way that looked the same, and the bad swimmers did something else-- more or less like what he was doing. He started with a visual match, and later worked out the physics.

Some people do yoga for enlightenment, but I find that troubling, like a big-time cultural appropriation.

That seems very odd to me, but I'm something of an immanetist. Whatever is behind the universe is behind all of the universe, and no one owns the gates to perceiving it. Being rude about what people want to keep private is a separate issue, but I've never heard of efforts to keep yoga private.

I'm appalled that the Indian government thinks that it has needed to take steps to keep yoga public-- videotaping asanas so that no one can copyright them.

Also, enlightenment may be built into yoga-- a while ago, I read about yoga with the religion stripped out being studied in the USSR (is that cultural appropriation?), and people being unnerved by odd experiences that they weren't expecting from an exercise system.

It's probably easier to get enlightenment that way than by doing yoga hoping to be better looking. Or by seeking enlightenment. I believe it's relevant that the Buddha was seeking to solve the problem of pain rather that trying to get a certain sort of experience.

I may be driven to write fiction: somebody needs to write a satire about a society that drives itself wildly off balance over what should be a minor sort of self-improvement.

[schemingreader]

I worked through Total Immersion last year! I had to--my shoulder kept going into spasm and I needed to change my stroke.

There have been efforts to copyright yoga. Bikram Yoga has attempted to copyright poses that have been in circulation for centuries. It bugs me to hear people saying that yoga isn't Indian, also. I mean, my teacher isn't Indian, but she went to India to study with BKS Iyengar, one of the gurus from the Hindu tradition who made the decision to make yoga available in the west as health discipline. If yoga is universal, it's because Indian yogis made the decision to take it west in a certain way, not because it didn't come from India and a specific cultural context.

Of course, so do most exercises have cultural context. Lately I've been doing kettlebell exercises with these funkily shaped free-weights that are like a canonball with a handle. These were popular for years in Russia and a lot of the current fad for them is tinged with old memories of Soviet bloc weightlifting. Weird!

There's a lot of swinging the weight using hip motions with kettlebell exercises, which is great if you've been doing Total Immersion swimming and thinking about how motion comes from your hips! I got the Kettlebells for Dummies book, which was helpful, and I've been watching Youtube vids by trainers and trainers in the gym for the rest.

Of course I've always liked working out with free weights--even the ordinary dumbbell and barbell exercises are a lot of fun. As with yoga, there's a lot of concentrating on performing the exercise with good form, even though the form is different--knees have to be soft or slightly bent, and you have to think about all of the positions of the back and so on.

[nancylebov]

Hypercultural take on exercise: Let Every Breath...-- it's a breathing system developed by Russian Orthodox monks and then picked up by the Soviets for their elite athletes and soldiers. The author is in love with Russia.

[schemingreader]

Here's a video of two trainers from the gym of the person who wrote Kettlebells for Dummies demonstrating the swing, a basic exercise. You can sort of see why this is fun.

Here, for contrast, is an instructional video on a regular free weight exercise, the bench press. You can see that weights exercises are a lot like yoga because you have to keep concentrating and doing things with good form, and sending energy through your body in the same ways. (Well, you can't really see that, but you'll feel it!) I was doing chi gung and weights at one point about 15 year ago and the feeling is very similar.

[reddragdiva]

This should be a LW discussion post. "Yes, we know you want to transcend the mere body. But while you're in it ..."

[boxofdelights]

For me, it's having dogs who are just so goddam joyful when I reach for the leash that I can't help being happy too.

I realize there are some costs to this exercise program, but it's the only one that works for me. I love dancing, but the shyness always defeats me.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

music while exercising and dance type exercise are the ONLY things that work for that for me. other than bicycling

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I have recently found that "Get this snow out of my driveway!" is a good motivation for exercise.

However, it doesn't work every day.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Dance does. (And I agree.)

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

I like trail running. Being surrounded by mostly forest is a motivator for me. Living in a dense, walkable environment is up there, too. Trees are important to me to make exercising pleasurable. Kinesthetically, i like playing musical instruments a hell of a lot.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

folk dancing. I can dance much harder than I can do anything else. When I run outside that context, my lungs burn. When the dance requires running, even when it's live music and the gaida player never stops for half an hour, I'm fine.

[elektra-h.livejournal.com]

I'm really competitive by nature, even if it's just being competitive with myself. So, when they graduated me from PT, I signed up for Eowyn's Challenge http://www.eowynchallenge.net, and I'm trying to ride my exercise my to Rivendell.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I like T'ai Chi--it's very easy to get into a flow state. It's good for balance and ease of movement in joints, although it's definitely not aerobic exercise.

[catbirdgirl.livejournal.com]

I've heard thats why people like Nia and Zumba. That's why I like water aerobics... they FEEL good.