Throughout my life I have been loath to exercise on machines; in rooms filled with sweaty people in contorted positions trying to get rid of fat, build muscle, or improve endurance. My days were filled with exercises of a different sort – the kind that just happened as you were trying to get things done. Carrying kids and groceries, up and down stairs with laundry, at home to tuck kids in bed, or to see students or teachers at work. Hikes down long halls with kids in tow. Cleaning, moving furniture, playing, weeding gardens, shovelling…. There was an endless demand for the expense of energy; and stretching – sometimes I felt stretched so thin it seemed I would break!
But at 64 I have finally realised that that is no longer my life. Yes, I still do a lot of physical activities but that has been cut back considerably. I now understand that in order to stay fit for the next 30 years, I may have to actually “WORK OUT”. It has taken me several years, perhaps a decade, to get my head wrapped around this, but I think I finally got it!
A change of attitude makes all the difference. Yesterday I went to the gym, and this is what I saw. The City of Edmonton has done an incredible job of creating beautiful recreational facilities. At 9 in the morning, the Terwillegar Rec Center was pretty busy, and they didn’t look like a bunch of sweaty people doing useless motions to me. It looked like a new culture or an aeronautics program. OK, let me explain. The space was bright, open and well lit; like a dome building in the early sci-fi movies. There were lots of strange looking machines. Some people were watching movies as they worked away on them. Others were engaged in small classes to keep them moving, students were being toured through the building, and older people worked on their balance. There was weight lifting, swimming, youth playing basketball, mothers with strollers jogging in the gym, Tai Chi, and some skipping. Child care was available, and were friendly spaces where you could meet with someone for coffee.
This is a new age, not just for me because I am 64 and need to work out, but because of a general cultural shift, a change in daily movement, due to a change in environment. There is a need for aeronautics training for the average person to feel healthy and whole. I loved exercising with these people, who like me are working on improving their health.
Written October 2, 2018