Here it is. The month when New Year’s Resolutions fall by the wayside. Tempted to give up that “exercise more” resolution? Don’t do it! Just be sure that you have found your personal exercise jam.
I was recently chatting with top Hamptons trainer, Rebeca Penteado, about this very thing -- in the locker room at the gym if you must know. “When people tell me they hate exercise,” Rebeca said, "I always ask 'have you tried everything?'”
We agree. Bodies are meant to move. Bodies that move feel better, last longer and have more fun. So to those who declare “I hate exercise,” we say, you just haven't found your exercise jam yet.
Exercise comes in all shapes, sizes, places and intensity. It can be indoors, outdoors, public or private. It can involve equipment in a sweaty gym or a pair of sneakers on a secluded trail.
My sister, who rarely leaves the house without makeup, has never met a weight up close and personal, and whom I’ve never seen run -- not even for a lone taxi on a rainy NYC night -- loves to swim. In the dead of winter I will find her bundled up and heading to a basement pool a few blocks from her apartment. I know women who regularly pop in a DVD and sweat to the oldies, head out for a daily walk with a group of friends or take the dogs on a hike. Others have discovered dance classes, Zumba, yoga or Pilates. A lucky few experienced their first runner’s high at 40. My BFF is an aerial artist who likes her exercise 20 feet off the ground and I know a devoted couch potato now hooked on mud runs!
For me? Heavy weights and high intensity. Yup, Crossfit and I are a match made in heaven.
Next time you are tempted to swear off all exercise or abandon that New Year’s resolution to exercise more, consider that maybe you just haven’t found your exercise jam...or at least tried everything.
