Activity for LIFE!

What do you like to do?   Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Baseball, all aspects of baseball.  I came upon this sport as a young man and I was frustrated by a body that would not grow fast enough for me to compete on a high school level.  I was cut twice from my high school team.  Frustrated by my own limitations, I was humiliated. 

In college, I didn’t pursue it.  Partly, I was focused on my major and on a certain path but partly because I didn’t have the courage to follow my convictions, to my regret now. 

Sometime around 7 years ago, I met a former minor league pitcher.  He befriended me and I realized that he and I shared quite a bit.  Most importantly, my passion for baseball and being active in a sport that I enjoy was awakened. 

So, at age 29, I decided to find a recreational team to play baseball.  I found one and for the last 6 years I’ve played for one team or another.  At first, I was awful.  However, I’ve committed myself to improving.  I like to pitch and I’m relatively good at it.  My stats are mediocre to poor, but I’ve had real moments of brilliance that make all my hard work pay off. 

Now I’m 36 (about to be 37) and I still play baseball.  I still work on my pitching and I LOVE IT!  I know that I will continue to follow this passion as an activity for the rest of my life because I find the activity so fulfilling.

Every time I work out, my workouts serve the purpose of making me a better baseball player.  The drive to become better so that I can enjoy my sport more, will feed my enjoyment of the game.

Why tell you all this?  Simple: I want you to find an activity that you love so that you will continue to work on it your whole life long.  Now that I live in Florida, naturally the population of clients that I work with is significantly older than the population I worked with in NYC.  One thing I see, over and over is regret over not finding a way to incorporate exercise in their life. 

The people who have found that time for themselves tend to show much better health in their older days.  The folks who haven’t made time for themselves in activity tend to degrade at an alarming rate.

Our bodies are designed to get better.  The old phrase:

“You stop being good when you stop getting better,” elucidates exactly what happens on a regular basis. 

We have this stigma about getting older:  that we slow down.   Certainly, entropy plays a part.  However, I came across a study measuring overall metabolism of aging individuals and animals.  Here’s a simplified version:

In studying the metabolism of animals, it’s been discovered that animals metabolism stay relatively high until death. 

In studying the metabolism of humans (Americans in particular) it’s been discovered that there is a degrading of metabolism over time and then death.

Basically, the quality of life and metabolism degrade over a long period of time.

This degrade is attributed to modern medicine, our sedentary lives, and real inactivity. 

I URGE all of us to seek out an activity they enjoy. If you enjoy doing something, you will do it for a long period of time.  Remember: I’m interested in LONG TERM philosophies.  I don’t want a quick fix scheme, but rather a long term perspective that will serve us life long.

Get active.  Keep your metabolism high!  Increase your quality of life!  I wish you to enjoy what you do.  Exercise can be a chore, but let’s make it a pleasure by choosing something YOU LOVE!

Mo-tate.  Motivate your life to MOTION!