a year in exercise

[thedeadparrot]

So, it's been kind of year since I started going to yoga classes. I thought it might be a good time for me to reflect on it.


So, I don't know how my body right now looks different from my body last year. I haven't taken progress pictures. I haven't even weighed myself. I've gotten a couple of comments from people about how I've lost weight, but it doesn't happen often. I wear the same clothes for the most part, plus or minus some new things and active gear. I still have a muffin top that hangs out over the edge of my pants, and I still have a fold underneath my ribs right where my belly gets squished up. My thighs still jiggle when I move them.

But I can tell you all sorts of things about what I can do now that I couldn't do last year.

I can bend my arms from a dead hang -- not enough for a pull up, but my arms bend.

I can run for two miles straight (my knees are not up for 10ks right now).

I can hold downward dog for more than ten seconds.

I can vault over rails and (short) walls.

I can crawl backwards up stairs without my knees touching down.

I can balance on a rail.

I can climb up a 5.8 graded climbing wall, and I can climb up a V1 graded bouldering wall.

Though I have enjoyed exercise-type things before (mostly martial arts), I am learning to appreciate the things I can't do. Martial arts tend to be more artificially gated -- you tried new things when you gained a new belt -- and very repetitive. The things I do now are pretty much all about challenging myself physically all the time.

It can be frustrating. It's pretty much always frustrating. I train parkour in a mixed gender group that is mostly dudes, and I'm almost always the slowest, the weakest, the most easily exhausted. There are basic parkour moves that I have seen dudes nail on their first day that I feel like I am nowhere near getting to. Sometimes I wonder if I should try to count calories on MyFitnessPal or go paleo or something like that and shed pounds in order to make it easier to move my body around. So much of the information and communities women have online about fitness are about losing weight and controlling their eating.

But I think it makes more sense for me to keep on keeping on. I am getting stronger. I am getting better at the things I want to do. Like pretty much everything else, it will take effort and time, and I'm definitely enjoying myself along the way. That's what I'm trying to focus on. My body moves and loves to move. I love to move my body.

It was a gazillion degrees and humid outside today, and I still went to a parkour jam when it was at its hottest because I love it so much. The guys were blowing me away on pretty much every possible metric, but I still jumped, I still climbed, I still crawled backwards up some stairs.

It was awesome.

P.S. I love this ad of women doing sports and being sweaty and round and unapologetic.

Comments

[zulu]

This is a wonderful post. Yay for being active! It's hard to get into a routine, but once you are, it feels really good to keep it up. That is some awesome climbing, too. :D

[thedeadparrot]

I think it was less hard to get a routine for me and more difficult to keep myself from doing things too aggressively and shred my body into pieces. :p

And thanks on the climbing props. I am super proud of it, and I might even tackle some 5.9s and V2s soon!

[merisunshine36]

I love this post! It is always super cool to see your body be able to do new things :D. Good luck on year 2!

And I remember watching that ad three times in a row a while ago!! it's amazing.

[thedeadparrot]

It is! I am always amazed at how when your body does new things it feels like it's nothing! Things feel easy all of a sudden!

And that ad is so great. I read some stuff about the making of it (and the general campaign it's a part of) and it's really all about trying to get women to be more active by showing bodies that are not perfectly 'fit' with amazing hair and dry skin. It seems to have worked, too! Which is super inspiring.

[metonymy]

THE HUGEST OF PROPS for going out and doing actual physical activity today! It was disgusting!

And this is a great post, I love talking about the things our bodies can do instead of the ways in which they're "wrong" or the ways we should deprive them and take up less space.

[thedeadparrot]

OMG, the weather was the worst. I was so cranky. I drank so much water. But it was still fun, and we didn't get kicked out despite the hilarious 'no parkour' signs the park had put up.

And yeah, I don't want to say that I don't stare at my belly fat in the mirror or feel weird trying on clothes next to skinnier people, but I try not to let it own my life, you know? I am trying to focus on making my body do more amazing things, and hopefully it will continue to do so.

[vass]

I train parkour in a mixed gender group that is mostly dudes, and I'm almost always the slowest, the weakest, the most easily exhausted. There are basic parkour moves that I have seen dudes nail on their first day that I feel like I am nowhere near getting to.

For what it's worth, rydra_wong's posted about the same thing in the context of rock climbing, and she says it can be an advantage, because the men power through it all on muscle alone until they reach something they're not strong enough to do, and the women have to focus on technique much earlier because they can't climb without it, so by the time they build more strength they are already way ahead on technique.

[thedeadparrot]

Yeah, I've definitely noticed it in climbing, too. I mostly climb with other women, but I have a fellow climbing dude who had to sit out a few weeks because he gave himself carpal tunnel by trying walls that were too difficult for the quality of his technique.

Still, it's hard to watch him scale 5.10a walls without feeling a little annoyed and a little jealous.

[stultiloquentia]

:)

[thedeadparrot]

:DDDD. I will still continue to peer pressure you into coming to parkour class with me, just FYI.