Why This Fitness Pro Does NOT Think “Exercise” Is Life

It doesn’t snow here very often, and it shuts down our area when it does. We might get a couple dustings each year, but typically we get more freezing rain.

So this past week when it dumped 4 inches between dinner and bedtime, my family was out partying in it at 9 p.m.

Of course, said partying included lots of “Mom! Pull us on the sled! Pull us! Pull us! Again!”

This was easier when they were five and two years old. Now they are 11 and 8 and weigh a combined total of 150 lbs.

Yeah, but I said yes. Five times over. I said yes to pulling them around the house and down the driveway to calls of “Faster, Mama! Faster!”

Yes to running until my legs were noodles and my breath came quicker than I could catch it again.

Yes to the added weight of our lab mutt.

Yes to going off the snowed-over 4” bike jump so they could land with a thump.

And no, I’m not sore today. No, I’m not injured. No, my diastasis didn’t re-widen or deepen like it would have 5 years ago before I knew how to align and breathe and engage while doing wind-sprints in the snow around my house.

And there it is. My why.

I’m not a runner, but I ran.

I never train with a weight sled, but I pulled a weighted sled, and my body felt strong and capable!

I don’t workout to get sore. I don’t exercise to look good on camera or naked for my man (although he claims to be a happy man) I’m also unmotivated by the thought that exercise might help me live longer.

I exercise to be able to spontaneously play with my children like t I did last night, and to be able to say yes to physical activities with my family and community without hesitation.

Yes without fear of leaking.

Yes without fear of soreness the next day.

Yes without fear of being so exhausted I’ll need two naps.

Yes without fear of surprise twists, sprains and other injuries caused by acute weakness or chronic overuse.

I have an extreme dislike {trying not to use the word hate} for fitness mantras that ruin real life like “No Pain,  No Gain” and “If you aren’t sore, you’re not doing it right” or “Go hard or go home,” and here’s why…

I don’t want fitness to be my life. Even though, as the owner and founder of an internationally acclaimed fitness website with thousands of users, it takes up a big chunk, I refuse to serve it.

Fitness has to serve me, but if it leaves my priorities out of whack or gives me a hitch in my git-along, then it’s not serving me – It’s hurting me!

I worked out yesterday in the morning while my kids were at their classes. I did about 30 minutes of motions pulled from my memory of several Fit2B routines that we’ve filmed + a few new moves that I’m practicing for future workout filmings… can you believe we now have about 200 workouts, and my brain is still churning out more?

Yeah, but that workout yesterday? It didn’t break me down. It sustained and maintained me and left me with enough to still to play in snow for 45 mintues and do 5 strenuous wind-sprints with my kids at 9 at night!

Now, whether or not a “real” sprinter would think I was sprinting is another story.

But it felt fast to me. And I was winded. So I’m calling them wind sprints.

And what I’m trying to say is that fitness should be your warmup for life, not your whole life. Don’t exercise to exercise more if exercise is going through same motions all the time. Let your “exercising time” be a practice and therapy time for the bigger motions you’re hopefully planning to do next week when you go paddleboarding, skiing, rock climbing, hiking, or that new kickboxing class.

I get it. Sometimes a 10 minute video on Fit2B is all you have time or energy for. You are who this website is for: You who cannot get out today. You who need a warm up. You who need to connect to your core again so that you can – one day soon – go back to your favorite activity, whether that’s running, swimming, racewalking, or whatever.

There’s a season for baby steps and a season for heavy weights. Fit2B can meet your needs in just about any season BUT we aren’t here to be your all in all when it comes to movement. We are here to lay your foundation so you can move more in real life.

Join me and see how fitness can be your warmup for life without consuming your life.

Blessings, Beth