The Reason Why We Exercise

I have had many epiphanies today and they are all quite interconnected. I was in weight training class today and my teacher is super knowledgable about all that has to do with exercise. She was showing me exercises to be done on the stability ball and I realized that I had been doing alot of exercises wrong. For example, when I do a push up on the stability ball (which means that my feet are up on the ball) I had been dropping my pelvis. This means that I wasn't engaging my abs and once I brought my back into alignment by raising that pelvis, my abs started shaking. This led me to realize how much we neglect our abs. We should be contracting them in almost every exercise we do in the weight room...and having strong abs is one of the best ways we can support our spine anteriorly! Here's the thing...it is those balacing exercises or those exercises that you just use your own body weight as your "weight" that are the ones we really need to be doing. Even buff guys can't do some of the challenging moves my teacher showed up today. I will tell anyone the moves if you want to know but they really do require concentration and balance, and they really strengthen those abs!

OK on to my next realization--appearance. We can all look at people who either don't go to the gym or are always at the gym and pass judgement. Well lets take a closer look. the people that never go are just not aware of what they are missing. But what I find more interesting are the people that are always at the gym. In our society, we have the habit of immediately marking them as a person who has an eating disorder or an overexerciser. But why don't we ever consider that they've realized that a daily workout is their method of relaxation. Or that a workout is the way that they feel normal and balanced for the rest of the day. i want to be like this. i want to be able to go into a gym and not feel like a "girl". i want to walk in there any time of the day and get my workout on and not care what anyone thinks about me. and then i can walk out of there with my head held high. i am almost there i feel but i will still not enter the MAC gym after 5 pm to weight training because i am all but suffocated by the testosterone in there!!

So continuing with this whole appearance thing. The girls that have the great bodies because they work for them...well i was thinking...those girls that really do hit the gym so hard for THEMSELVES and THEMSELVES alone are my role models! they don't want to be thin or fit for a guy. ya it is an unavoidable thing that men who are interested in them will look at their body but the thing is that girls with perfect bodies often times don't let it affect who they are as people. these are the girls i admire because they are working out hard FOR THEMSELVES like i have said before. i dont think i am fully here. i still tend to see working out as a duty sometimes and i know this because there are weeks when i am too stressed out and i wont work out for like two weeks! this means that i am not exercising purely for myself and for my own enjoyment. if this was my sole reason for exercising, i would be able to make time for it EVERY DAY.

So if i decide to go full-force on exercise and health in order to perfect my body, it will be for ME and ME ALONE. Dedicating an hour a day to exercise is nothing when i consider all the stress i have. it isn't time that should be seen as duty. it is the ME time that i need. this is why i am going to make it a priority and work to be that girl that is so healthy that it shows to the world. im gonna get that hot bod but im gonna get it for me...not for any boy. because the boy i fall for will love me for more than my athletic attributes.