I’ve sort of determined in my life I have time for about three physical activities. I think I’ve found my magical combination that offers me fitness, minimalistic, well being, mobility, and expressiveness. I also think these activities compliment each other well.
Running: I’ve been running for about 8 years. All I really need is running shoes and weather appropriate clothing. It’s helped keep my weight down, keeps me feeling fit, easy to do, and I like anything I can zone out to music to. I also ike doing things outside.
Yoga: Flexibility and balance are the main concepts here. I also like again that all I need is my mat. Some mild strength benefits as well. I also like some of the spiritual / communal aspects in that I can dedicate my practice to myself or a person. I like the social aspects of a class as well.
Dance: Both Yoga and Running tie in with dance. Dance is much less physical but extremely positive for my sense of well being and fun. Physical / social contact, expressiveness, creativity while being in motion just gives me a lift I cannot describe. Running accents my ability to have endurance and move well with my legs, and Yoga helps with balance, posture, creative positions, body awareness…etc.
My fourth non-physical activity is Music…so you can see a theme with how I chose my activities. I also love Yoga music!
If you had to choose three physical activities what would they be and why?
Tennis - I’m a tennis addict. I’ve been playing competitively for about a decade now. It’s both social and physical.
Hiking - When I vacation, we almost always schedule a hike or five. I’ve never done the backpack in and camp hike, but I do love exploring a place on foot. We’re going to Sedona in a few weeks and I can’t wait to get out and breathe some clean air.
Dance - There are few things more joyful than dancing. If I couldn’t dance, I’m not sure I’d ever have a clean house. I crank up the Sonos speakers and go to town.
Taekwondo and bowling are my main 2. I guess the third would be the hiking that accompanies geocaching, but we just don’t seem to get out in the woods that much any more.
Bicycling - I grew up in a neighborhood where a bicycle was the only way to get around; school, paper route, everything. Would put one of those mechanical odometers on the hub, it’d break after a couple thousand miles, and I’d get another one. I still have the muscles for it, and I live near the Minuteman Bikeway; if I never have to ride in traffic again that’s fine with me. Out and back is about 25 miles. I’ve been trying to do that most days. I should hit about 1,500 - 1,700 miles for the summer before hanging things up for the winter.
Curling - A little athletic, a little competitive, a little social; and the physical aspect isn’t about brute force as much as coordination and precision. (Well, the sweeping gets the blood pumping a bit). It’s a fun, quirky thing to do with fun, quirky people.
I don’t have a third, at the moment. I did take a ballroom dance class (inspired somewhat by your thread on the subject) and enjoyed it more than I thought I might. It’s a possibility.
Running is the first athletic activity that I really took to, when I started 9 years ago. I like clearing my head and getting those endorphins. I actually rely on running for pain relief and my mental health.
Crossfit. I did crossfit for a little over a year, and I loved it. I had great coaches who cared a lot about safety and teaching proper form, met some great people, and it brings me to my third…
Heavy weightlifting. I left crossfit mainly because of financial reasons, but not before I developed a love for lifting heavy things. So I now go to a gym that has a great weight room, and I also run a few times a week.
Years ago, I loved dance and running. Now I’ve got a bum knee, so I’m still trying to figure out what works with that, that also works with my exercise-induced asthma.
stationary bike – great because a) it’s inside and away from pollen, and b) when I’m done I don’t have to bike back home.
weight machines – free at my apartment complex
I don’t know what #3 is. I’ve done some historical sword training, which is fun. I’ve done some fencing which is fun. But I think I’m going to check out the local Y, which has TWO indoor pools! I’m a good swimmer, and I like the idea of water aerobics. And also just being able to float around in a heated pool is nice when it’s freezing outside. And the sauna room also sounds really nice.
Cool! I’d never heard of it before. It sounds too intensive, too vigorous for me, but were I twenty years younger, it might have been good!
Another one I might have mentioned: indoors artificial rock climbing. This seems to have been a fad, and has largely gone away. Too bad! There was a huge converted warehouse in San Diego, with an enormous Half Dome mural painted on the side, that hosted indoor climbing. I never did get off my butt to go and visit, and now they seem to be gone. Bummer!
There’s real rock climbing, and I know a very nice field of boulders that are just within my competence.
Middle aged, non-atheltic lady here. My current three activities are:
Dance, specifically ballet. I’m returning after an eight year absence and am loving it.
Kettlebells. Russian style, my teachers were trained by Pavel Tsatsouline. I’m lifting and swinging heavier than I ever thought possible. I’m working a 100-swings a day program at home right now.
Brisk walking. I’m trying to do it three times a week, two miles which takes me about 35-40 minutes. I plan to start a Couch to 5K program soon.
I refuse to buy an automatic transmission car so I can get the exercise of shifting gears. I also tip my glass all the way back when finishing a beer. That is two, about as far as I go exercise wise
Hiking or walking. It comes very naturally to humans; in fact our walking endurance let us slowly chase large game to their exhaustion in our evolutionary past. It’s healthy for us and pretty non-damaging. And it can take little time to prepare for it or recover from it – for example I generally park in the most distant spaces, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. I love a five mile hilly trail hike in the woods, but I also love unplanned opportunities to walk an extra 50 or 300 feet and make my blood move a little faster.
Then swimming, as a sport. But I don’t do it much, except during our week at the beach.
After that, if I can count mowing or raking as a sport, that’s about all I’ve got.
Don’t forget the number of reps lifting the beer, there. That’s three.
For me, as a 53-year-old guy, I’m doing…
Karate. Training as a brown belt in Shotokan karate, four days a week. Speed, strength, and lots of time spent standing there with my knees bent is a lot more strenuous than you’d think if you’ve never studied Tai Chi.
Yoga. Two days a week doing Yin yoga (slow, long stretches on the mat). I just added a third day doing Hatha yoga, which is more standing poses with a lot of movement from one pose to the next, and it is kicking my ass.
Weights. Once a week, for the most part using hand weights, but also cable machines for lat pull down & triceps.
Rumor has it I should find some sort of aerobic exercise that doesn’t bore me to tears, but I’m managing to resist that so far.
I don’t know how old you are, but I am 46. Just FYI. A lot of what is publicized about crossfit is the super-rigorous, let’s all vomit kind of workouts, and I never went in for that. Let’s just say, I loved it as a workout and a community; I disagree with a lot of the ideology. That’s why I’m not scraping the money together to give to an affiliate gym, but I do miss my crossfit friends.
There’s a rock-climbing gym right near me that I keep meaning to check out.
Work out at a gym, go for both cardio and strength/weight training. I was never as healthy as I was when I was a gym rat… a skinny, geeky gym rat mind you… I did cardio daily (elliptical or treadmill) with my own pulse rate monitor, and worked my way up to an hour a day. I did strength training, alternating days between upper and lower body. I’ve always had pre-hypertension and fast heart rate, and within weeks the drop in both was noticeable, lost weight, gained strength. And at least on the elliptical, I could set up some streaming Netflix to my phone to pass the time. Overall, too, I saved money; $30 a month for the gym, rather than a few DVDs and alcoholic beverages while sitting idle at home.
Club dancing. I decided to try going to dance clubs after my divorce, and discovered that I loved it. I was mostly into high BPM electronic stuff and became so comfortable with it that I became pretty good (and so familiar with it that I followed specific DJs, and could tell when someone made a miscue). Ended up switching to a new club and got hired for a while as a house dancer.
Classes on interesting-sounding physical activities in general. Did classes in swing dancing, fencing, weight training (where I learned to build my own plan in 1), falconry (sucked at that one). Most dance schools offer different styles, so you can dip your toes in a lot of stuff that builds your repertoire for 2!
