Can Fitness Truly Be Fun?

Crush it, Punish, Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body, No Pain No Gain

These are the fitness slogans of my youth - and I bought into them. Punish your body after a night of drinking and debauchery, burn off those calories consumed, fitness is about being your most slender self. But was it fun? I’m trying to remember all the reasons I worked out and it’s hard to remember every one of them, and I feel like it has been a complicated journey. In the beginning, like around 8th grade, I remember a new gym opening near my apartment on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. They had a rock climbing wall, a basketball court (celebrities and athletes would play there on occasion so that was fun), and personal trainers. I remember taking kung fu lessons (for some reason) and working with the trainer to get faster and stronger to make the varsity field hockey and softball teams. I remember wanting to try the climbing wall - I’d never seen anything like it! They even had those Reebok slide boards (obsessed).

In this scenario, fitness was fun and new and it was about trying new things, challenging myself, and working towards a goal for team sports I adored and wanted to excel at.

And then as I got older, and through high school and college I often found myself forcing myself to go to the gym after the aforementioned scenarios in the first paragraph - but also it was the pressure of those teen magazines like YM and Seventeen with stories like - Is Your Body Bikini Ready? (I am sure these types of things still exist but I’m 40 and do not know off-hand) I didn’t find fitness activities like running on a treadmill, lifting weights, or sitting on a recumbent bike fun - it was kind of something you had to do to keep up with life - but what I did enjoy was the afterglow feeling, the feeling of being accomplished, moving, and pushing the body.

What I REALLY enjoyed the most was being outside, playing sports like tennis, running, and other casual team sports, I felt like there was a triple duty going on - not only was I being physically active, but I was outside not in the halls of sweaty gym, and I was playing having fun being free - no shame of not looking like something I wanted to be but wasn’t.

I then found Pilates - this random little class in downtown Ann Arbor - that wasn’t full of students but just regular people - and it was glorious and slow and made me feel strong and I craved this type of movement and class - it connected me to my body in so many ways. I radiated positive energy every time I left this class wanting more and more - I felt lighter and more energetic - don’t get me wrong it was challenging but the mantras of no pain no gain were replaced with “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.” and “Change happens through movement and movement heals.”

Through Pilates, I felt a shift in my psyche around the idea that every season is bikini season. And it wasn’t about being bikini fit - but strong, confident, and able-bodied to take on any challenge, any physical activity, and feel good in my skin throughout the entire year.

Next in my journey came the running and the marathon training - a friend suggested I join Team for Training and train for a marathon - that gave me added purpose and drive and running became fun for me as I did it with a team for a purpose, to feel accomplished, for a good cause. It gave me an avenue for connection that I had never explored before and running became fun - I’d run around Central Park, I’d run around the tip of Manhattan at 5 am and feel so full and alive as I watched the sun rise over the east river. For someone who didn’t really enjoy running that much, it made me cherish it and it made me feel alive.

I then moved to Vail, Colorado - where Snowboarding became LIFE! Gosh, I fell in LOVE with that sport and have not looked back ever since. The gym became an extension of the mountain for me. I would rush there after work to get stronger, work on my core and my legs to get better at snowboarding - I had a purpose so deep and the fitness part became FUN because I was doing it for the pursuit of freedom and fun and stoke and creativity and connection. I didn’t feel like I had to go to the gym but more so I wanted to, I looked forward to ski conditioning, I looked forward to getting better - and that flow of physical activity on and off the mountain rewarded me - in so many ways through friendship, travel, love, and pure unadulterated fun.

Then Mountain Biking came along - it might be the sport I feel the proudest to do as I do not personally know anyone in NYC that mountain bikes, and it scares me a little (or a lot) but I love it and it is just pure fun. So I had a sport in the summer and fall to motivate me to create fun in my workouts keeping my body prepped and primed at all times to be injury-free and strong so I could have fun in the great outdoors.

Through these two outdoor sports - I started to enjoy hiking more which led to backpacking, and backcountry skiing. The fitness had become fun so that I could enjoy all of the places my body was taking me and I was feeling good, and strong, and confident along the way.

And now as I’ve gotten older and have a two-year-old - nothing quite prepared me for how strong - HOW STRONG - I needed to be for motherhood - mentally and physically. Lifting a car seat into the car, carrying said car seat with a backpack to and from places, folding a heavy stroller and lifting that into the trunk of a car, carrying a hiking backpack with a baby, carrying a 30-pound toddler and their bike when they decide they are done biking many houses away from our home. Postpartum was definitely a challenge, seeing my body deflated and I worried about how was I going to get my body back, and to be honest, body back to how it looked prebaby, yes ah that lovely ego, but more so body back to be able to do all the things that fill my cup up because that’s how I am mentally able to stay strong amid meltdowns and challenges.

Maybe if I swap the word fitness for physical activity that would make better sense but I do believe fitness can be fun and not a slog and not about crushing it or no pain no gain - there’s a balance of excitement, there’s an intention, there’s a why, there’s a feeling of connection to yourself - your mind, your body, and to the nature around you and to the feeling that physical activity can give you freedom and make you feel limitless - which leads to Living a Stoke Life :-)

NOTE: I meant for this post to have some mentions around shame - body shame, not working out shame, etc but these paragraphs flowed and I have more to say about shame and fitness and how choosing a personal trainer is like choosing a therapist - it’s PERSONAL, it’s a very personal relationship where you share your insecurities around movement and fitness - the relationship has to jive and flow and be a good match - anyway more on this in a future post this one is already too long.

Stay Stoked,

Rachel