EMOTIONAL FITNESS: AS THE BARBELLE TURNS

Find your happy place, just not that place. image via atomictoasters.com

Does a gym help emotional fitness?

The gym rat with the gallon jug, pill pack, and headband, don’t workout for emotional fitness .

The only way they’d focus on emotional fitness is if they could see it in a mirror with a pulsating vein.

Gym regret is a sign of good gym emotional fitness, like:

“I used to be one of them, big and strong and judged. You know what it got me? I helped a lot of people move, lost IQ points with every new person I met, and now sore joints.”

What do you tell such a person? Start with fitness.

You go to the gym on a regular schedule to gain more energy for the rest of your life.

It’s not about shaving your body bare and drooped shorts on the stair stepper, any more than it’s thong-wear in the dance studio.

It’s about get up and move.

The point of gym time is exertion and rest, push and pull, squeeze and release.

The best gym advice I ever heard was, “You need to get into the muscle before you get into the weight.”

If you’re one of the confused crowd who considers arm curls a workout foundation, it goes like this: drop your shoulder, squeeze the hell out of a light weight, and do a repetition; do a set of 10-12.

Your arm will feel different because you’re isolating your bicep more than you ever have.

Get used to the muscle part, then add weight, and eventually you’ll have that muscle pop up on on your bicep muscle that makes strangers think you’re one of the brain dead human burros waiting for a load.

The true gym rat takes a different path that may or may not include muscle on muscle.

Their path taps into emotional fitness.

Research suggests our brains improve through complicated movement, like standing on one foot while you do curls, if curls are a big part of your life.

It’s something about developing and connecting neurons, creating a better brain, being a better person, even if you can rip a beer can in half.

The best of the best in the gym use body weight exercises, like some kind of tension yoga.

The next time in the gym look for people who move from one stage of their workout to the next, ignoring the clatter and commotion of the crowd.

It doesn’t matter what you wear, whether it’s biking shorts with the big load pad for hard seat spin class, or girl’s team volleyball shorts; whether you wear an Elvis inspired spanks top, or tube top.

Emotional fitness fits in every rig.

If a creepy gym member keeps showing up next to you, emotional fitness means developing a blank spot for them, like Photo Shop.

If you scrape your hand and someone brings you a band aide, just say thanks.

Your emotional fitness helps you find allies, inspirations for showing up and competing in the gym.

Keep your allies close. They care about you.

And they might even give you a spot when you need one.

Everyone needs a spotter now and then, especially one with emotional fitness who won’t leave you stranded.