I might pull off getting in shape this time.

[yrmencyn]

I keep making these weird little grunts whenever I move.  The reason is that I am sore, because after a multi-month lapse (which itself followed only a very brief stint of non-lapse) I've started exercising again.  Minor, not well organized stuff: random situps and pushups, because they're easy to do in my room while I'm doing other things, some sun salutations as stretching, other body movements.  In addition, I walked around the lake today, about 1h30m of walking total.  It's not much, but I feel pretty good about it.  I'll probably step it up to running/walking reasonably soon (I know for a fact I can't run anywhere near that distance right now, not in my wildest imagination).

It's hard for me to exercise, because it really runs counter to the way I see myself.  I tend to think of myself as essentially a geek, which carries with it all sorts of implications that tend to mess up my life (along with ones that enhance it, of course), not the least of which is an expectation toward discoordination and weaklingness.  Well, I'm tired of that.  I've been tired of it for a long time, but I think that maybe, just maybe, I might really be honest-to-God tired of it this time.  I'm tired of getting winded walking up the four flights of stairs to the French Dept.  I'm tired of the layer of fat that overlays my [honestly, pretty decent] abs.  I'm tired of my weird aproportionality, where my massive legs (entirely genetic) make my already undeveloped arms and chest look positively spindly in comparison.  I'm tired, in general, of being a slave to an inward mental projection that is absolutely false and misleading.

I don't have to be athletically hopeless to be smart.  I don't have to neglect my body to improve my mind -- in fact, the opposite is probably true, i.e. a sound mind works best in a sound body.  None of this is supposed to sound self-pitying or anything, it's actually a form of me psyching myself up.  I don't plan on being a chronic gym rat or anything, nor becoming a muscle-bound bodybuilder (yech.), but I'd like for my body to work at least half as well as my brain does.

Comments

[groovy2382.livejournal.com]

*in my best arnold-like voice* I want to ...PUMP...YOU UP!

[lucki-dog.livejournal.com]

What happened to the shovel glove?

[yrmencyn.livejournal.com]

Didn't stick with it. Still have a sledgehammer in my closet though, so I may well pick it back up.

[whisperwheel.livejournal.com]

Amen, brother mike :-)

[purple-phys.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the best benefit of working out for me is the way that my brain just feels more connected, calmer, and generally happier after working out. They're starting to recommend exercise as a treatment for depression even. So in this way, sound body = sounder mind.

Or maybe I just want to see those abs you say you're hiding ;-)

[tiggerbone.livejournal.com]

Join us! Join us! We can show the world that geekery is not synonymous with physical pathos.

[theapplepicker.livejournal.com]

in fact, the opposite is probably true, i.e. a sound mind works best in a sound body

I think the Greeks had a saying to that effect or similar.

[zigeunerweisen.livejournal.com]

I know there's "Anima Sana in Corpore Sano", which I only really know because my preferred brand of running shoes is ASICS (which is just the first letters of those words). It's Latin, so that'd be the Romans, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Greeks had one too.

[theapplepicker.livejournal.com]

Hey, linguisty person. If you have any knowledge of or opinions on the supposed sign-language-learning chimp thing, I'd love it if you'd register such over on my LJ. It's my most recent entry!

[zigeunerweisen.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm a geek! And I run marathons! Geeks can be athletic! (though I must admit, I'm kind of a freak next to my fellow geeky coworkers/colleagues)

[theapplepicker.livejournal.com]

Geek is so close to greek.