How a Sports Hater Got Active
I’ve never been a sporty person. Being put in situations where I have to be competitive stresses me out. And having no hand-eye coordination definitely doesn’t help.
Holding a hockey stick at Madison Square Garden is about as sporty as I’ve (left side) ever gotten.
When I was growing up in the 90’s, we had significantly less technology-related entertainment. Being put into organized sports by your parents was one of the major ways you passed your free time. My parents mainly registered me onto soccer teams. I tried my best to be a good soccer player. I’d run up the field. I’d run down the field. Sometimes I’d even manage to get possession of the ball. Although, to be real, those times were mostly a case of right place, right time.
Playing sports or being athletic is how a lot of the popular kids at my school gained their social status. When I was a kid, it seemed to be one of the criteria you needed to meet if you hoped to be considered cool. But, on top of not being any good at sports, I was also simply disinterested. I was into non-competitive activities, like going for a walk in the cemetery behind my house while listening to music on my Walkman (perhaps not being into sports wasn’t the only thing keeping me from being popular…). And I liked going for bike rides with my siblings. Walks and bike rides weren’t hot ticket activities, but they were the activities that got me active.
A historical photograph of the Giraldi Bicycle Gang. Definitely not a picture I drew when I was 27.
Now that I’m all grown up, I still feel like I’m being told that I need to be following certain trends to fit in. There’s so much messaging that I see and hear every day about what the best way to work out is. Fasted cardio, for example, or the wildly popular HIIT (high intensity interval training). Real talk: I hate HIIT. For YEARS I tried to make myself like it. I’d try a new HIIT routine, hate it the whole time, and then eventually give up on the routine, telling myself cardio just isn’t my thing.
It was just recently that I realized steady-state cardio is my jam. Last November I wanted to try something different from what I usually do for my cardio workout and I decided to start training on the treadmill. Initially, my pace was at a fast walk/slow jog. But I started increasing my speed bit and bit - and found that I was loving it! Now I run 5k three times a week and I’ve set my sights on 10k.
I can only get a good workout in when I have my 90s-style shoes on.
If you’re trying to reach a fitness goal, or you’re just trying to get more active, searching on social media can be a great source of fitspo. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that just because a fitness guru or your friends post about a certain type of workout, that doesn’t automatically make it the workout for you. Try different routines and do the ones that feel right. That’s what’ll make working out a joy instead of a chore!
At this point I’m wondering:
Is there a workout that was recommended to you that you tried but didn’t like? What are you currently doing to stay active?
Tell me your answer in a comment below. Let’s all simultaneously hate sports but stay active, together :)