How To Exercise At The Beach

As I write this the weather is sunny outside with a cool temperature of 73 degrees Fahrenheit. What a great day for some outdoor exercise, wherever you might find it. For my wife and I, the game plan is the beach.

My family (wife and pets) enjoy living in Southwest Michigan just about 30 minutes drive from half a dozen or more beaches. These are not the shark infested beaches of the Pacific, nor the oil stained beaches of the Gulf, neither the tropical storm/hurricane beaches of Florida and the Keys. I'm talking about lakefront beaches surrounding the Great Lakes.

These last couple months of summer have been filled with picnics, games, swimming, boating and fellowship all taking place on the beach. Our favorite times to go are Friday evenings, as we wind down from the week and prepare to enter the rest which the weekend offers. The friends have been great, the activities lively and the sunset-suppers delicious.

We will plan on another such evening tonight. In fact I imagine myself running around the beach throwing a Frisbee or football, maybe even starting a game of volleyball before supper and sundown. I mention this because exercise and workout does not have to be so rigid that it becomes a chore.

I have a ton of fun at the beach just being active. I don't have to worry about how much time I spend doing it, how hard I work at it, or how many calories I'm burning during it, I just enjoy it.

And if you don't already have an outdoor activity that you enjoy, you ought to think about finding one. You've got nothing to lose and, like me, it could become one of your favorite weekly activities!

See you outside!

Sauna at Sunrise

Today was the day! Our mission, accomplished.

This morning marked the first morning since coming back from vacation that cooperatively my wife and I woke up with enough time to drive to the Y and get some exercise in before the busyness of life started.

Really I don't know how it happened. We crashed somewhere between 10:30-11:30 pm the night before. Seemingly a minute after I had fallen asleep I found myself sleep-walking to the dresser to throw on my work out clothes. Now the clock said it was 6:00 a.m. but the darkness that I saw outside the window suggested the clock could have very easily been wrong.

By any means, we took the short drive to the Y, where I ran through a quick and abbreviated 30 minute routine involving some cardio, stretching and a sauna. Cardio is okay, stretching feels alright but my favorite part is always the sauna.

Inside the sauna feels great as the sweat runs off your face and limbs, as you breathe in the steamy moisture-filled air, all the while knowing that the toxins within your system are being pushed out through your pours resulting in a better overall health.

Walking out of the Y just around the time of sunrise started my day on a high note. It’s a beautiful day to be alive!

Life's Too Busy

A great many things filled out my day today, but the closest I ever made it to working out or exercising was climbing up a flight of stairs (to the second floor) for work, and of course down that same flight of stairs to leave work. The rest of my day was mostly sitting down.

I sat down for everything including eating breakfast, driving to work, working at the office, eating lunch, using the bathroom, driving to class, listening to the professors lecture, reading assigned material, completing homework, driving home, eating supper, etc.

Usually this inactivity is counter balanced as a couple friends and I will blast through a few matches of racquetball on most Wednesday evenings. *Sigh* Not one of us had time for it today.

All in all, this was a sorry day for engaging in activity. So I'm crossing my fingers hoping that the day tomorrow brings will have more than 24 hours in it. That way I might stand a chance of accomplishing the many wonderful intentions that I have for myself and my health.

True story.

Lifting School Books And Syllabi

Fall classes for graduate studies started this week for my wife and I and it was quite hectic as we registered for classes here, dropped classes there, picked up more classes and so on.

One such case happened today as I attended a class that required like 5 books, some of which were thick large volume commentaries or dictionaries. I began to imagine how much muscle mass I could gain just by lifting and carrying all the required books to and from class every day.

Probably it would do me good, but in addition to all the books required for the class the professor passed out 4 separate syllabus packets! The papers together were so thick, they could have never been stapled together as one packet, hence the 4-pack. It goes without saying, but I dropped that class for a more reasonable one...

All in all with the rearranging of classes, mapping out homework assignments and scheduling new work hours I found myself today being limited to mental exercises without the benefit of important physical exercise.

*Shrug* Some days are like that!

1-2-3 Ding Ding Ding

Oww! Ouch! Oh that hurts! These were the thoughts running through my head today as I limped around the campus upon which I am studying for my graduate degree.

Yesterday when I was "Mr. Competitive" and played extreme racquetball on an injured knee I never imagined the result would feel like I'd been tortured!

Climbing stairs, getting in and out of my desk chair, driving in the car, even sleep last night was very difficult on account of my knee being so uncooperative with the rest of my body. My left leg is stiff and tight and needless to say I am not planning on any form of exercise or workout today.

You can count me down and out!

Competive Sports

This will be short and to the point on account of me being out of breath. Today included 2 full hours of graduate student orientation, 6 hours of work, and another 2 full hours of racquetball.

I should probably let you know that I LOVE the sport of racquetball! If you asked me to run laps for 2 hours forget it. If you asked me to play basketball for 2 hours I’d probably decline, and even bicycling and roller skating isn't as much fun for me as a good game of racquetball.

I'm no expert, though I am improving as I play competitively with a couple of friends at a comparable skill level.

Due to a recent knee injury caused by chopping wood and a stray log encounter (a whole different exercise story) I have been favoring my left leg. Which means I should be letting myself heal up and play conservatively... yet it's competitive sports so I gotta play to win right?

Well I played pretty hard, and won a few singles matches, a doubles match, and lost a singles match as well as lost a cutthroat match. Overall I was very pleased and might I reiterate that, hands down, racquetball is one of my most enjoyable modes for exercising!

Why Mow The Lawn?

*Warning* this may be one of those boring posts...

Today was busy as most days are. I got up around 8:00, ate breakfast, showered, and prepared for work at 9:00.

At work the time just flew as I worked on this, that, and the other projects and before I knew it it was time for lunch.

I had lunch with my wife, something light and then she needed to head to work. This left me to the second half of my day. Unfortunately this second half went a little slower than the first.

If you had walked or driven by our house that day you may have noticed the grass reaching its climax. This climax was a direct result of the unabated growth our lawn had experienced in the 2 weeks we were gone on vacation and the 1 week (for a total of 3) in which I had just ignored the outdoors.
Well I didn't think I could get away with ignoring the outdoors forever so I grudgingly, I mean lovingly (in case my wife reads this), pulled out the mower and cranked it up.

We live on a small city lot and our yard is probably a quarter acre at best. Even still, with 4 trees, 3 flower beds, and a row of bushes it can take me 45 minutes, easy, to mow the whole piece. For this reason, I have decided I fulfilled the requirement for a daily exercise or workout by mowing...

Hey it's something active!