Encouraging Exercise (a.k.a. My Little Rant)

I had the unfortunate chance to become annoyed with a friend (and fellow crossfitter) recently. She does crossfit at another gym and that is the only workout she will do. I on the other hand mix things up just to keep myself going. I do crossfit at work and on days that I’m not there (or not lazily sitting on my butt) I do zumba, dvd workouts, old school tae bo from youtube, jump roping, hula hooping and whatever else I find to be interesting. So, anyway we were discussing what our workouts were looking like for the week. I told her since I had been absent from crossfit for a couple of weeks I needed to ease back into it but needed to get back on the cardio in a hurry so I planned on some multiple zumba classes. She said, ‘Ha Zumba?!? You can’t be serious. That’s not a real workout!’ I had to get myself together before responding because I immediately swelled up with anger and annoyance. This is not the 1^st time I’d come up against this attitude. I went into my rant about how first off no one has any business putting another’s workout down. She had never even tried it. I told her if she tried a good class I can almost guarantee she would come away winded. Yes…a winded crossfit lung! I love me some crossfit but I equally love zumba…and African dance…and biking….and whatever else gives me physical joy through sweat.

I walk with a group at work because it’s a good form of movement in the middle of a day worth of sitting. For most of the group this is their only workout of the day. Do I look down on them? Hell no! It’s better than them doing nothing! I encourage them to go farther, faster and longer. They encourage me to drag my lazy butt to crossfit or zumba after work. What’s this ‘my workout is better than yours’ attitude? That’s some mess right there! 

So people think before you speak . If you know someone who’s just starting to work out and it may not be as intense as you’d like, encourage them instead of putting them down. Besides, what you think is tough and bad-assed is probably a walk in the park to someone else.

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