Torture or Relief?
Recently someone asked me about my Full Body Jam fitness class and when I explained the format of the class they said "so basically, I pay you to torture me for an hour!" While I laughed at the time, especially since it's not the first time someone has called my classes torture, the statement stuck with me because although I know this person was joking, they weren't really! You know what I mean? They laughed and joked, but down inside their feeling about exercise is that it is torture! And that made me a little sad.
I know not everyone is an exercise freak like me! I actually do really enjoy exercise! Even hard core, full on sweaty exercise! I know: I'm a bit of a freak! But I'm good with that! I wasn't always. It's about your mindset. The definition of torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. It implies that exercise is something you want to avoid at all costs because it will be painful and horrible. Think medieval torture chamber! Yet I argue that exercise is actually about the opposite of torture; it's about relief! The definition of relief: alleviation, ease, deliverance through the removal of pain, distress.
Maybe you're asking yourself what am I talking about? I am saying that yes, exercise is hard work, and yes it can be uncomfortable but not as uncomfortable as your daily life will be if you do not exercise. Big reveal here: I just turned 50 years old! Yikes! I still hate that number! Mostly because to me someone who is 50 is old and I don't feel old! Out of friends my age or older all of them have some joint issues or medical issues of some kind. Most of them, even much younger friends, are on prescription medications. Daily activities are challenging and sometimes painful. Walking up the stairs is...what's the word? Oh yeah...TORTURE! I have no aches or pains. I am not on any prescription medication. I run up the stairs easily. I get in and out of my car easily. I can sit on the floor and get up easily. I intend to be this way for a long time!
That is why I exercise!!!
I exercise so life isn't torture. I exercise to live! As I get older and the children don't need me as much, university is paid off and my husband can retire I look forward to travelling the world and enjoying all the things this amazing world has to offer. I don't intend to be sick and tired and unable to go away because no insurance agency will insure me! I don't want to sacrifice a tour because I don't know if I can walk up the mountain or climb the stairs to the Arche
If you are looking at exercise right now and thinking, I should do that but I don't want to because it's torture. You are right!! But if you look at exercise as a means to life you will start to love that your heart rate increases, your body sweats and your muscles fire! Because that means your body is alive! And isn't that what you want?
On that final note I bring it back to the beginning statement and my answer is -No, you don't pay me to torture you, you pay me to help you live your life to the fullest!
