The New Road

Megan: Future fitness nazi

While Megan was getting on her socks and shoes before I took her to school I figured I could get in a set of light weights. Now this isn't big stuff. I'm talking little 7lb aerobics weights that I use with high reps just to keep my biceps up. But she was fascinated, and after I was done I went to put them down and she said, "Now go like this." As she spun her arms around in little circles to her sides. So I did that... and it hurt like hell. So I stopped, and she said, "Now like this..." And she twisted her torso with her arms stretched way out, like some carnival ride. And I tried that... And it hurt even more.

As a reward I let her play with two of Lori's very light 2lb weights and she had some fun exercising with those on the way to school.

I can totally see Megan as one of those drill sergeant fitness instructor types. Like the types who run spinning classes with linearly increasing levels of effort with no breaks... then do it all so effortlessly that you wish you hate little missiles you could fire out of your eyes that would blow them away.

I'm trying to do as much of my home exercise in front of Megan as I can. Or at least in a spot where Megan knows that I am exercising. Primarily because my parents never showed me how they exercised. I suppose that's because they really didn't exercise at all until my Mom got into Jim Fixx. And then it was just, "I'm going for a run, back in a while." Without any talk of how, or why, or what progress was made. So as an adult I had very little knowledge to draw on about how, where, and when to work out, what effort to expend, how often, or what I should see as a result of all of it.

My sister was the only person in our family to do any type of 'workout video' stuff. It was Jane Fonda and I used to give her all kinds of crap for it. Years later of course the tables have turned and I ended up turning her onto Billy Blanks and Tae Bo and now she has six pack abs and preternatural balance that she uses for 'machine gun kicks'.

Aside: I've found the secret to good balance on exercises like the machine gun kick (which has you kicking from a T position with your chest going in one way and one leg going the other all being supported by one leg.. then kicking hard with your leg in the air) is to keep the support leg bent fairly significantly. In fact, slightly bending your knees is really key for balance of any sort. Come to think of it, I can't think of a good circumstance for keeping your knees locked.

If you want to try a machine gun kick don't be surprised if your first time out you can only do one or two, or none. It's very hard. Only now, after five months of training, can I do fairly long sets of them. And even now I tend to bounce around a little.

BTW, if you can get through Billy's Advanced Bootcamp DVD then I consider you a living god. I can't do it. I think Jenny gets through most of it. But the bands portion in the middle... crazy.

An early history in health and fitness can help in the long run.