Friday, September 20, 2013

Is Fitness your Sport, or is SPORT what your Fitness Plan is Missing?

Feel like you’ve hit a training plateau?  Can’t bear the thought of another boring bout of cardio on the treadmill?  Does your pending workout session loom over your head like a rain cloud all day long?  Why not do something about it so you actually look forward to your workout because you know it is going to be the highlight of your day?   Why not rediscover an old sport or learn a new one?  Joining a competitive sport’s team will instantaneously renew your exercise regimen with fun, motivation, accountability, intensity and passion! 
While there will always be a need for traditional exercises, both resistance and cardio, in any holistic, well-rounded fitness plan, playing and competing in sports can also be an outstanding path to achieving fitness while bringing some excitement back into your training.  Playing a sport or competing, can also give you something more tangible to train for, other than a scale or the mirror.  Some folks are lucky enough to view traditional exercising as a sport in and of itself, and actually enjoy exercising in the purest sense – they actually trigger a dopamine-neurotransmitter reward response, in their brain simply by going for a jog outside, spinning to good music or busting out a heavy set of squats.  CrossFit for example, once just considered a form of boot camp-style exercising, is now a niche sport followed by thousands.  The best of the best CrossFitters now compete in the national CrossFit Games, broadcasted by ESPN.  However most of us view working out as just that – more work, and just another hour taken from our day that we’re just trying to get over with.
This blog post was originally written for & published in Four EL magazine by me, SEPT 13 issue.