Introductions

[rydra_wong]

Because I thought it might be interesting to see where everyone's coming from ...

Here's a thread to say hi, and say a bit about your interest in movement/embodiment/whatchamacallit.

What movement things do you do -- or not do? Or: what did you do in the past? Or: what might you be interested in learning more about, but haven't tried yet? Or: what do you love reading about even though you'd never want to do it personally?

I suggest that people feel free to jump all over each other and ask questions if you're curious about something someone else mentions (if you'd rather not answer questions, please just say so), or want to say "me too" or compare notes.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Doing: mostly walking, when I can. I find flaneurs fun.

Oddest: had to give up tai chi, and especially chi gong, because repetitive movements became a specific problem for me.

Used to do: mostly a wide variety of dance styles, and the traditional ambling, rambling, and scrambling (trees, rocks, underground, and urban).

ETA: I have a minor and outdated qualification in nutritional medicine. It's illegal, in the UK, for me to give advice so I don't usually talk about this but I maintain a healthy [/pun] interest in the subject and its applications in life.

[sixbeforelunch]

Oh, what an interesting community! *joins*

[snippy]

I walk some (half mile each way as part of my commute to work), I like to dance but don't have the stamina to do as much as I want, and I wish I could swim more often. I'd like to get into lifting weights in a way that works for me but can't find an affordable option for that and the swimming.

I'm recovering from 4 years of relative immobility: I had severe vertigo and eventually 3 major operations to correct small broken bones in my inner ears, from which I am still struggling to recover.

[spiralsheep]

Any particular form of dancing?

[sixbeforelunch]

I walk.

That's kind of...it. I enjoy riding a bike, but I don't have the money to buy one right now, so I just walk. I am incredibly fortunate to live next to the beach so I'm able to go for long walks barefoot on the sand several times a week.

I feel like I should be swimming or running or doing other things, but the pool is right in the center of my apartment complex and I feel like I'm on display down there, and running does not appeal to me at all, but I like walking. It's soothing, and it helps with my anxiety, and it's a way to get my body moving.

I used to rock climb, but I gave it up due to a lack of time and money. I've never been athletic, and there are always a million reasons for me not to exercise, none of them especially good reasons but most of them sufficient to keep me on the couch, so I rarely do, but I like the idea of it.

People like to talk about the inconvenience of the human body, and yeah when they break they can be really awful, but a well-working body is an amazing thing. I appreciate athleticism and the science of nutrition and exercise (though I do think a healthy dose of skepticism is always a good thing when it comes to those things--they are astonishingly complex topics and we are barely scratching the surface of their complexity).

Things I'm especially interested in: rock climbing, dance, American Ninja Warrior-type feats, walking, biking, kayaking/canoeing (in calm waters), and hiking.

[spiralsheep]

I'm able to go for long walks barefoot on the sand

That sounds lovely! I used to especially enjoy barefoot tai chi on grass.

a healthy dose of skepticism is always a good thing when it comes to those things--they are astonishingly complex topics and we are barely scratching the surface of their complexity

Very true.

[alexseanchai]

This is a thing! I forgot!

I square dance. I would like to ballroom dance and archery. Too bad those are money.

[spiralsheep]

It's a pity you don't live over here (or Toronto*) because balfolk and related traditions are sorta folkie ballroom dancing and tend to be much cheaper to learn and attend than the Strictly Come Dancing competition variety of ballroom.

* Possibly also Quebec?

hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Doing: parkour! (thanks to thedeadparrot Also running.

Used to do: crew / sweep rowing.

Intrigued by (yet vaguely terrified of): rock climbing.

Also intrigued by: dance, sign language.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[lunabee34]

I am not familiar with crew / sweep rowing. What does that entail?

[jenett]

Current: Swimming is my current thing. I do laps two or three times a week for about 40 minutes, made even better by a waterproof mp3 player and headphones, so I listen to podcasts while doing it.

(I like the idea of walking. In practice, I dislike treadmills and will use them only if there's no other option, and walking outside with chronic health issues that mean I can hit 'out of spoons, cannot get home' issues if I go too far astray, which I find very boring. Plus weather and my lungs do not agree about half the year.)

Past: I used to do fairly serious horse back riding as a teenager (Pony Club and 4-H), as well as skiing and sailing small boats on lakes, and the kind of biking you do when you're a teenager and it's too far to walk somewhere readily.

Sometime maybe: I keep wanting to take up some kind of dance exercise / semi-meditation practice, but it's been hard to make work in my actual life. (Timing issues with getting ready for work / getting home / etc.)

[lunabee34]

Sometimes I think the twenty first century is wasted on me. It never occurred to me to look for a waterproof mp3 player.

*horizons open up*

I was mentioning up thread that Amazon Prime and Youtube have free dance videos (well, free for the price of amazon prime) that might work for you or around your time schedule. I also have a dance video I bought that is broken up into six ten minute increments so you can customize how long you want to go.

[recessional]

Things I did as a child/adolescent:
- speed skating
- swim-team
- competitive dance (ballet, tap, jazz, related forms)
- several forms of music (ahahaha so fucking embodied and movement-based) but primarily classical European vocal training and piano, as well as related performance
- acting
- casual horseback riding
- recreational skiing


Unfortunately these left me, by and large, with a subtle but incredibly destructive postural issue that everyone responsible for insists that their art could not POSSIBLY be responsible for (not that I'm BITTER), massive body-loathing, negative emotional associations with all of the above, and a body full of muscle-memories of being a lot stronger and of higher endurance than I now have which leads to me being discouraged and frustrated with what my body can now do.

Currently I walk once a day, if I'm lucky. As I'm in a miserable down-turn that's really "if I'm lucky", as exercise holds no intrinsic pleasure for me. This is very frustrating.

I would LIKE to be doing daily cardio via walking and daily yoga for body movement and presence. Right now I have no idea if I will ever achieve this.

[lunabee34]

*commiserates*

I frequently get really frustrated with my body as well, especially since my knees have continued to deteriorate. :(

[ironed_orchid]

Hi, I'm Gretchen.

In the past I used to do yoga regularly and at various points in my life I went to the gym 3+ days a week.

Work schedule plus the fact that I work in retail and am on my feet nearly all day plus a couple of chronic conditions like PCOS which have fatigue as one of their more frequent symptoms (in my case) mean I don't tend to do scheduled exercise or classes anymore. But I still walk a lot outside of work (where I usually clock about 6000 steps in an day).

[ETA: I like my job, but am happy to commiserate about some of the aspects of workplaces that require us to stand or sit all day.]

Nearly a year ago I started playing Ingress, which is an Augmented Reality Game by the same group who released Pokemon Go. Ingress is map and GPS based, meaning you have to physically be at certain locations to play. It also has some speed locking features, meaning that while you can play on public transport (or in a car, but hopefully not when driving), you get more points and can do more things when on foot.

In the summer I usually go for a walk in the evening while playing Ingress. In the winter I play mostly on my commute and a bit on my days off. It's led me to visit landmarks and parks in my city, and my most productive day in terms of play and exercise was a 12km walk in which I captured over 300 new portals in a single afternoon.

[alexseanchai]

Workplaces. Bah. Commiserate yes. My job is a sit-all-day type. Intellectually I know they won't object to me taking a few moments every hour or two to stretch and walk around. I still get too caught up in tasks to remember that. And how does one not slouch?

[ghoti]

Currently: Walking about a half mile each way from where I park to where I actually work. I can get about 7000 steps on an average-busy work day. I started Isshin Ryu karate in April of this year. I earned my first belt promotion in September and am slowly working towards the next one. (I have to keep reminding myself that I have not been doing this for long and that struggling is part of learning.)

Previously: Half-hearted yoga and strength-training-gym-type things.

I have bad knees and am prone to heat exhaustion, so that tends to limit what I do and when.

[lunabee34]

*commiserates about knees*

I am ready for my Star Trek edition knees, please.

[lunabee34]

Hi! I'm Lorraine.

Just to let everyone know who commented on my previous post, I have not yet experienced the runner's high even though I appreciate everyone who described their experience/non-experience with the phenomena. Maybe it lurks in my future? I hope so.

Right now I am exercising 6 days a week. I either walk at 4 mph on the treadmill at a 15 incline or run on the elliptical. I have just started incorporating strength training again but am not being consistent about it.

I have degenerative arthritis in my knees and two autoimmune disorders which can complicate my desire to exercise and how sore I am afterwards.

If I controlled the universe, swimming would be my primary form of exercise but my access to a pool is limited.

I also have a dance exercise tape that kicks my ass. I still can't do the whole hour of it in a row (lots of hopping and jumping). I think it's an excellent workout. Twenty minutes in, I'm panting harder and sweating more than when I run on the elliptical (and I stay between 5-7 mph on the elliptical; I usually run about 4 miles).

I exercise for health reasons and for vanity reasons and for being able to sleep better reasons (why do so many conditions cause insomnia?) and also because while I often do not enjoy the work it takes to make this happen, I genuinely enjoy feeling strong and feeling my endurance increase.

[abyssinia]

Hi! I was super excited about this community when it was created and then forgot about it.

I was lucky growing up to have parents who let me play around with whatever I wanted to try, movement-wise - I dabbled with gymnastics, very-short-lived ballet, soccer (that lasted a while), tennis, softball (fairly serious for a bit), cross country running, and finally badminton (the one I got serious about - I had to pick the sport nobody in the US knows is a sport). I also grew up in a family that walked a lot and took vacations to hiking destinations and I still love exploring new cities by just walking all over them.

In my late 20's/early 30's I picked up ice hockey, CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting and have dabbled on-and-off with rock climbing.

Right now I'm struggling a lot with getting back into shape after ~2 years of not exercising due to some (resolved) health issues. It's a struggle in both deciding what to do (no, I do not have time in the week to run and bicycle and play badminton and play hockey and go climbing and play tennis and go weightlifting and go swimming and...) and in the simple act of making exercise a regular habit again. I'm so much happier when I manage it, but really struggling to keep at it consistently (I think partly out of frustration that I'm in the worst shape of my life and I remember when I used to be strong and have endurance).

I'd love tips/advice on getting back to activity after a long/sedentary break (and dealing with a body that isn't 25 anymore).

[lunabee34]

Yay for resolved health issues!

I just started exercising regularly again after about an 8 month hiatus because of depression. This is what worked for me. I made exercise a priority and part of my schedule. I gave myself permission to start slowly and to gradually increase duration and intensity rather than focusing on how my current performance compares to my previous. Although this isn't an option this semester, I hope to once again have an exercise buddy for spring; I find the whole shebang is much more fruitful when I have someone to go with. It keeps me accountable (can't back out now; Sally is waiting on me) and I also respond well to competition (*surreptitious glance at Sally's treadmill* I can totally go a little faster and match her speed). Journalling also really works well for me. Keeping track of when, what, how long, etc. is really motivating to look back on and also helps keep me accountable. Back when I was using the vivofit, even though it's silly, I did find getting badges for reaching certain milestones (you have walked 100,000 steps, etc) really motivating. I think many of the online components of the fitness trackers have that kind of function and they also have communities you can join for support, conversation, cheerleading.

But these are just things that have worked for me. YMMV

[thistleingrey]

I walk, sometimes quickly, sometimes moderately with a limp, occasionally with a stick to help my twisted knee/ankle/hip to go down hills or stairs. Even while things aren't twisted, lots of things are dead to me due to hypermobile joints and consequent damage over time. Once a week I try to ride a few km on a bicycle for my back's sake--nontrivial since I live on and near hills.

As a child I sprinted and did gymnastics. Though the gymnastics worsened my joints (as did playing violin), I credit gymnastics with sharpening my balance and ...proprioceptic awareness(?) in ways still useful to my middle-aged self.

I wish I wanted to swim :) and I kind of wish I could go jogging. I've installed You Are Your Own Gym on my phone but haven't tried doing any of it yet--procrastination or fear or something. Because of the gymnastics and an awful lot of physical therapy exercises, I'm pretty clear on how to avoid hurting myself further, but it's hard to do stuff while knowing that it'll probably pop a joint. Like, exercise doesn't fit well into the last few days before the next chiropractic visit, yet if I don't exercise, I'll never become stronger.... Working on that, the mental part.

ETA I've signed up to walk a 10K in a few weeks. Walking really is what I do--a few years ago I mapped my own half-marathon-sized course on streets and completed it within the Walt Disney Marathon half's time limit, though that was a good day....

[lunabee34]

That sounds like a really cool project to design your own half-marathon.

I live in a rural area with no sidewalks, so distance walking outside becomes a challenge (although I do live the equivalent of a couple blocks from an outdoor track that I can use).

[teaotter]

Currently, I walk. Sometimes, I walk and play Zombies, Run! at the same time, but I'm not a runner.

I have dabbled in yoga, belly dance, zydeco dancing, rock climbing, juggling, fire spinning, and weight lifting, but I think the longest I managed with any of that was two years of yoga classes. I get enthusiastic for a thing at first, then slowly stop going. This year, I tried to institute a home weightlifting program, but that faltered, too.

I took Feldenkrais classes for about eight years, which were incredibly helpful for me in the long run. They taught me a lot about how my body works together, and how to work my way through pain and tension without further injuring myself. I am better able to do any other physical activity because of them.

Now if I could just find the motivation to do so...

[jenett]

I did Feldenkrais lessons (Functional Integration, which are the one on one lessons) for about a year after my health crashed badly in 2009-10, and I am still convinced they saved me in all sorts of complicated ways. Highly recommended.

(For me, they were a lot about making the most of the energy i had, and convincing myself I could learn new things and wasn't stuck - digging out from thyroid and related issues that took a while to diagnose and during which I worked myself into pieces trying to hang onto my job did a number on me.)

[rydra_wong]

So: climbing climbing climbing.

Which I discovered in my mid-thirties, after decades of avoiding all "exercise" and "sports" (except yoga and walking and the odd foray into lifting heavy things) with fear and loathing since school; having the large helping of dyspraxia that often comes with autistic spectrum conditions meant school PE was nightmarish for me and helped completely alienate me from all things physical..

Also yoga and strength training (generally at home with kettlebells and bodyweight stuff), generally as an adjunct to/support for the climbing. Less walking nowadays when it's on pavements, after I developed a foot pain issue (more walking when it's on trails and grass).

Also, I'm dipping into assorted movement disciplines to try to pick up bits to enhance my climbing and co-ordination for climbing -- so, trying to learn some basic Parkour falling skills, dabbling in bits of MovNat and Ido Portal's stuff.

I like outdoor swimming in the summer, but that's mainly because I love the Serpentine Lido and immersing myself in cold water.

And having discovered (much to my extreme surprise) that my brain can learn movement skills, and some things about how I learn movement skills, I occasionally experiment in the privacy of my home with things requiring co-ordination that I'm very very bad at. So, dance, and even -- my ultimate nemesis -- trying to learn to skip. I hit myself in the back of the head with the skipping rope a lot. I have sometimes managed to skip for several consecutive twirls of the rope. But it's interesting to do it with the understanding that it actually is really fucking difficult for me, and that it's an experiment to see if I can hack the learning process.

(And also if I can, then it'll be a good way to build up calf strength and shock-absorption capacity in my ankles.)

[lunabee34]

Do you get an adrenaline rush from climbing (like being so high up or the possibility of falling?) or does something else draw you to it?

[indywind]

Self intro before reading anybody else's and seeing what anyone else thinks is relevant:

I'm a late-30s fattish, socialized predominantly-female trans/queer, neuroatypical person (so: baseline complex relationship with embodiment; firsthand experience with menstruation) with mild hypermobility, arthritis, poor stereoscopic depth perception (following eye surgery and alternate patching in early childhood), and a history of issues with sensory processing, balance, coordination, proprioception, and gross motor control--or, as we used to say: a klutzy dork.

I was late learning to crawl, ride a bike, drive a car; never did get good at ball sports, but have swum, moved to music, climbed things, jumped over things, and picked up heavy things from childhood. I had some quasi-formal dance training through a community program when I was a kid, rode horses for several years (and incidentally learned foundations of physical and behavior training), broke one ankle and the other knee at different times in adolescence, so spent a combined 8-9 months on crutches and a few months more in physiotherapy, perversely took weight training for my required school phys ed credit the year of the second break instead of the medical exemption (that any time up til then I would have grabbed in a heartbeat--but at the time it wasn't certain I'd ever regain full use of my leg, so I wanted to build strength while I had the opportunity, just in case). I went to college and my general health deteriorated from stress and poverty-related complications to self-care, and the only way I typically moved my body was walking everywhere as I had no car, til I graduated and improved employment and finances, less stress, better nutrition. In college and after, I dabbled in BDSM, took up SCA combat archery, renaissance dance, then walking/jogging for exercise, then SCA martial arts (armored and rapier combat), then strength training and running, went back to horseback riding for a bit but didn't find a trainer I clicked with, started bicycle commuting, tried ballroom and contra dance but didn't stick, then left off the martial arts and took up yoga, and eventually mindfulness meditation.

Nowadays I do enough running, strength training, and yoga for maintenance, bike to/from work, and occasionally get a swim, dance, hike, paddle (of the canoe/kayak sort, not the spanking sort) or horseback ride for fun. I dabble in animal training, which I consider a physical (mental, emotional) discipline somewhere between team sport and art, and I groove on researching the biology, mechanics, and psychology that contribute to physical abilities and experiences.
I teach or coach in most of the things I do competently; it is another way of deepening my own understanding, and an attempt to use my own perspective as a not-stereotypically-sporty and occasionally handicapped person to broaden accessibility of physical activities for others.

Oh, and I'm rather interested in Parkour, but also intimidated by the potential to break myself.

Hi, longwinded.

[lunabee34]

We have several colleagues who were once active in the SCA and who sometimes put on demonstrations of the fighting techniques at school. I am fascinated by the detail work in the costuming, especially the chain mail stuff they wear. Very cool.

[pendancy]

This comm is pretty cool.

I've only recently started actually moving. I've been a couch fetus forever and grabbed a gym membership on a whim about a month ago. Now I do weight resistance training, core strength, swimming, and am trying to learn yoga.

I'd like to read about/learn poledancing because it takes crazy amounts of strength and coordination and it's a challenge that I may be up to one day.

[lunabee34]

Someone on my LJ flist does poledancing (she posts under flock or I'd link you), and reading about the different moves she does is really cool. It really does take a great deal of strength and coordination; she would post links sometimes to videos of moves she had just mastered and I would boggle that anyone could actually do them. LOL

[white_hart]

I am a previously mostly sedentary person who was always Hopeless At Games at school who now swims twice a week for about 30 minutes each time and walks between two and five miles each day (in bits and pieces, not all at once). I went on my first Proper Walking Holiday last summer, on the Hadrian's Wall National Trail, and definitely want to do more.

In the past, I've tried running and managed to get through Couch to 5k (though my 30 minutes was more like 3.5k than 5) but then I managed to injure myself so badly I could barely walk for six weeks and that's rather put me off. I also managed about six months of regularly doing yoga using the Yoga Studio app, and I should really try to restart that...

[lunabee34]

What a beautiful icon!

I really hate how frustrating illness/injury makes exercising. I hate that feeling of starting completely over when you've had to take a hiatus.

I hope you are recovering well from your injury!

[laceblade]

After wanting to try riding a horse my whole life, I finally tried it a little over two years ago, and liked it. I take lessons once a week and became a member of the US Pony Club. (There's a special classification for adults over age 26 or so.)

I have terrible reflux, so it's been hard for me to find a physical activity that keeps me upright and minimizes pain.
Walking anything longer than a mile usually causes pain in my upper back, too.
So far, the horseback riding has been a great new hobby, but it's hard for me to drive out the half-hour to the country more than once a week.

I'm interested in finding other activities during the week, but have been discouraged by my physical limitations as well as my de-motivating depression. That said, endorphins would also HELP the mental illness. So it goes.

[lunabee34]

What do you usually do when you ride horses? Do you ride the horse down scenic trails or something like that? Do you always ride the same horse?

Horse riding has always looked so fun to me, but then you get close to a horse and it's so enormous and seems a bit intimidating to me.

[juliet]

Currently: I walk a bit but only in the sense of "I live in London; walking gets me places (including to/from public transport)". I cycle but again as transport. I go bouldering very occasionally.

I used to cycle nearly everywhere and only very rarely got the Tube, then started getting public transport much more often once I had Small L. Small L is now 4.5 and we have a tandem (much more comfortable for me than bike+bike seat!) so I'm slowly getting back to cycling places with him, and I'm going out on my own more often and getting back into the habit of cycling for that.

I'd like to go bouldering more often. Pre-kid I went 2-3 times a week. Now it is down to once a month or so at most. As of this month I have a bit more cash and time so want to start fitting in weekly sessions.

Other things I've done: surfing; sailing; windsurfing; snowboarding and skiing; long-distance cycling (200/400/600km at a time); dance (clubs/raves, mostly, but 3-4 hrs at a rave is pretty good exercise!); yoga (many years ago). I'd quite like to do more long-distance cycling of the cycle-camping variety, but that will have to wait til Small L is a lot less small, or is inclined to come with me. I would love to get out dancing more often & am working on that! Surfing is fantastic but I live a long way from the sea, so once or twice a year is the most I can manage. Snowboarding is even harder!

I'd like to try sailing again, or windsurfing, both of which I haven't done in a couple of decades. I've been thinking about ice-skating (used to go very occasionally as a kid, loved it).

I've got a bit of experience with both Feldenkrais and Alexander Technique, both of which I found useful for my general movement and way of holding myself, but I think bad habits are creeping back and I need to think some more about that.

[juliet]

I think of myself as not terribly athletically inclined, but in fact looking at that lists there are lots of sorts of movement and bodily things I enjoy. Huh.

[cesy]

I love dancing, I used to do lots of folk dancing and a bit of figure skating. Then my knees got bad. Now I walk a little and do my physio exercises and occasionally lift heavy things at the gym when I can fit it in around work. I miss dancing and skating. I would like to find more things I enjoy with a low activation barrier when depressed in a cold winter evening.

[lunabee34]

What sort of heavy lifting do you do? :)

[vass]

I tried to write this and it got really depressing, and I suddenly identified a pattern throughout my childhood of my enthusiastically starting a group activity or private/group lessons in something physical, encountering some sort of interpersonal or practical difficulty with it, and quitting (either immediately in a rage, or drifting away defeatedly.)

Starting really young, like five at the oldest. Ballet and gymnastics, violin, recorder, swimming, horse-riding, brief attempt at karate, trumpet, brief attempt at gymnastics again, cello, a couple of terms of fencing, brief attempt at adult ballet. (Yes, you can tell a lot about my parents' socioeconomic status from that list. *embarrassed gesture*)

The big exception being singing, which was a lot more self-directed (my parents paid for my lessons, but they weren't driving me to and from as often, and it was more integrated with my school life, and then I did it at university as part of my music degree.) ...and now I'm not singing in a choir or amateur comic opera or lessons, and I'm horribly out of vocal condition and it makes me sad, but the thought of joining a choir again makes me feel so tired, and the thought of getting a new teacher make me sad and scared. Bad breakup with that activity. :(

I don't want to tl;dr about the details of all of those activities here, but here's an example:

Horse riding, age nine? to thirteen?ish. I loved riding (horses were my special interest, and I was really intense about it) but I didn't fit in there. Everyone else at that riding school was a local (it was a country town) and I was the only city kid. By the time I was thirteen?ish, I was the only kid in my class who wasn't employed there as a stablehand. We'd go on trail rides and everyone else would be talking about work.

One of my parents (usually my mother) drove me there each Saturday (an hour's drive from inner Melbourne, drop the kid off, a quarter of an hour into the actual town to drink coffee for half an hour, a quarter of an hour back to pick up the kid, a quarter of an hour back into the town for lunch with the kid, then an hour's drive home, that is a LOT of parental time commitment. And they did complain about the time and the inconvenience, but they still did it. Sometimes with my grandmother in tow, because she came to visit on alternate weekends, and needed hosting, and if the parent not minding me was saddled with her then neither of them would get a break. They deserve credit for this.)

My parents suggested I try to make friends there by asking the students in my class to come on a trail ride with me. So... they'd be the employee and I'd be the paying customer and I would be making friends with them by having my parents pay for us to go riding together. This seemed off to me.

Then Mike, the owner of the school, had a great idea. What if, during the school holidays, as often as my parents and I wanted, they could drive me there at nine and pick me up at five, and he'd guarantee I got to go on at least one trail ride, and the rest of the time I would be taking part in classes and stable chores and horse care just like all the other kids... except that the other kids would be paid to work as stablehands, and my parents would pay him $50 per day for me to pretend to be a stablehand. My parents thought this was a great idea too.

I thought this was fucked up. I'd always felt weird about Mike, like something in his attitude to me and my parents was subtly off, and now I was even surer of it. (One time before this idea of his, he had tried to loan me, long-term, a riding jacket and velvet riding hat that used to be his (now grown-up) daughter's. I did not need a formal riding hat or helmet. We weren't doing dressage, and I had appropriate riding clothes already. Nobody else wore those things, and he hadn't given clothes to the other kids. In a way I didn't have words for, it felt like he was doing it because he wanted something from me or my parents. Favour-sharking or grooming or something. I think, in retrospect, he just wanted our loyalty and for us to continue spending money, and thought I'd like looking like a Christine Pullein-Thompson character. But it felt weird, and back then I was always very confused about how the transaction of gift-giving/receiving works anyway, so I told my parents it felt weird and I didn't want to accept it, and they tried to tell me I should just accept the loan then not use it if I didn't want to, that he was being nice, he's a nice man, salt of the earth...)

Anyway, they thought I was making a mountain of a molehill and it'd be fine. And I liked spending time with horses. (I didn't give a crap if I was friends with the other riding students, so long as they weren't actively mean to me, (although I did have kind of an embryonic crush on Narelle, one of the riding teachers, because she was knowledgeable and briskly competent and I couldn't tell if she was a boy or a girl.) But clearly my parents did give a crap, because if I didn't make friends then there was Something Wrong With Me.)

So I tried it a couple of times. And it was awkward. It was incredibly awkward. It cemented the feeling that I didn't belong there and was doing something inappropriate by trying.

So when I wanted to try learning karate at a community leisure centre close to home, and my mother said "well, I think it's a bit much for you to do both that and horse riding," I decided to quit riding and give karate a try. (Karate didn't last, because it turns out that's exactly the sort of motor planning thing that can be a meltdown trigger for me, but I didn't go back to riding. And lo my parents were very relieved to have their Saturdays back.)

And. Like. There were options. I didn't see them at the time, but my parents had options to deal with their frustrations, and also (this is a pointier thing in other sports I tried than it is with riding, but it does slightly apply here too) when I wasn't comfortable with the riding school they could have done some troubleshooting around that rather than just accepting with relief that I quit.

- they could have said, not just vague grumbling but let's sit down and have a conversation, "Your riding lessons are eating up our weekends, and we work very long hours on weekdays and bring our work home, so we need to stop doing this every week." Instead of waiting for me to lose interest and hoping this would happen sooner rather than later.
- they could have said "this riding school is very far away, let's look for one closer to home." This one wasn't special or anything, it's just the one my father picked out of the Yellow Pages.
- they could have said "we need you to go riding less frequently, like trail rides once a month or four times a year, not weekly lessons." Yes, I would have been upset, but teaching me to deal with disappointment was actually their job, and I'd have gotten over it. And it would make sense for a far-away activity like that to be a special treat, not a weekly event.
- they could have stopped trying to arrange pity friendships for their child, ESPECIALLY via financial transactions, omfg what is wrong with you?
- when I was showing disquiet about Mike and my role at this stable, they could have said "do you want to try riding lessons somewhere else instead?" (this is the one that is way pointier in other activities I quit -- there are a lot of them where the problem was that instructor or that group, and rather than troubleshooting what the problem was, they either tried to change my emotions about it or just accepted that right, we're not doing that any more then.)

I miss it sometimes. I'm definitely too heavy to ride horses now. I have vivid sense memories of it, the smell of horse and horse sweat, and of horse pooh and hay and eucalyptus and clean air, and of the chewed grass in the green foam on a horse's lips when she's been working hard. The feel of a horse's neck just above her withers where I'd pat her, warm and solid, the motion of mounting up, of kicking a stirrup to make it spin right way around, and what the different leg and seat aids felt like, the rhythm of the gaits, how to shift one's seat to jump. How to time when you rise to the trot -- it's not like the horse is bouncing you up, but like you sit back down as they are bouncing up and that gives you traction to bounce yourself up. How cantering is not like rocking, it's like moving through the rocking, and how exhilarating a gallop is. Which precise bones are sore the next day. The horses themselves -- their names and colouring and personalities. Moving with a horse, communicating with them. Not needing to stoop forward for anything.

[lunabee34]

Thanks for sharing that with us.

Your description of your memories of horseback writing is lovely.

[geekturnedvamp]

What I do now: Pilates on average 5x a week, and I'm trying to branch out into learning Gyrotonic & Gyrokinesis, although it's hard to go often enough to really pick that up and get good because there are 10x as many Pilates classes as Gyro to choose from on any given day. (I live in a big city and have a ClassPass membership so I'm really spoiled when it comes to having hundreds of classes to choose from for like 15 $USD each.) I also try to do restorative body things as often as possible, like stretch class, ELDOA, MELT, etc., because I'm hypermobile and getting middle-aged and have all sorts of postural and muscular imbalances due to old injuries and my patterns of functional use in day-to-day life, specifically a lot of time spent on the computer. I took Alexander Technique lessons for many years and am always trying to make time to check out new movement studies--currently I've been taking a few classes in the Franklin Method and plan to try out Feldenkrais and a bunch of other stuff when I can. I also study anatomy and biomechanics and an obscure bodywork modality or two fairly seriously, even though none of these things have any connection to my day job and I'm not planning to make an immediate career switch.

Things I would like to try: pole dancing and aerial hoop or silks (if I ever feel like my body is up to it on a regular basis), climbing, indoor skydiving, belly dance and/or burlesque (even though no choreography comes easily to me), various cool gym-like machines where I can spar with robots or run in lighter gravity, and tai chi. If there were somewhere I liked to swim nearby I'd probably swim a lot too.

P.S. Apologies in advance if I don't respond to any replies to this right away, I usually don't check DW/LJ or my associated emails every day any more!

[lunabee34]

I am jealous of your access to such cool sounding programs and classes. :)

Your things I would like to try paragraph sounds extremely cool. I didn't even realize half those things were options. Wow. If you sspar with robots, you have to tell us about it.

[twospots]

Climbing! And running, and stretching. XC skiing, and skating, when the weather cooperates.

Previously competitive swimming (badly), cycling, horseback riding, swing dancing.

I am now too much of a snob to enjoy public swim times, and have never found a master's program with a location & schedule I like.

Cycling lost out to running in the time:exercise ratio.

Horseback riding I keep planning to get back into, but in the city I'm living in, I can't currently afford anything with coaching I like within a two-hour drive, although I'm keeping an eye out for networking opportunities to find non-advertised opportunities.

Swing dancing happens, mostly, after my bedtime. Plus, again, since moving, I don't have friends in the new city's scene, and haven't quite bothered to pick it up again.

*

Climbing makes me SO happy. It's exercise plus problem solving, and has also given me very useful whole-body strength.

Running makes my brain healthy. I... just... yeah. My mental health is infinitely better when I'm running regularly. I also have far fewer aches and pains and my body is much happier, too, but: brain.

[lunabee34]

I also feel the best when I do regular cardio like running. I like walking but it's not intensive enough for me.

[vi]

Hey, I'm Vi - what a cool community!

I love dancing. I've done a little bit of salsa when I was at university, been learning Argentine tango on and off for the last three years, and in the last two weeks I've been trying kizomba. What I love about dancing is the mindfulness you have to have in order to sink into it - connection with your partner, the music, the floor, and other dancers. I bought a Wii specifically to play the Just Dance series for when it was too cold to go outside for a walk - I haven't played it for a while, but it's really fun, especially when you have people to play with!

My other love is hiking - there are lots of trails in the part of Australia where I live, most notably a 1000 km track that runs southward from my city. The changes in vegetation - from dandruffy bush to tall trees to white sand and ocean views - are stunning. The other things I like about hiking are the stillness of being out in the bush, the camaraderie with the people you go with, the weird things you do (e.g., the time we were so cold that we camped on the floor of a toilet/shower block), and the renewed appreciation for hot showers, flushing toilets, and beds when you return home. I haven't gone hiking for a little while due to time constraints and a funny knee; I'd love to get back into it, or at least walking.

SNORKELING is also awesome! I only do it maybe 1-2 times a year, when I am going somewhere that has reef and lots of fish to see; I don't find it worth my effort if there isn't much to see. The best place I've been is the Ningaloo Reef in my home state. I went snorkeling almost every day in the two weeks I was there. The water was so thick with fish and coral and life.

I also do clinical pilates with a physiotherapist in an attempt to resolve neck/shoulder/lower back pain, and I like to play badminton casually.

Things I have tried: Ultimate Frisbee (two seasons were enough for me! Too much running!), jogging (nope), netball, tiny bits of yoga.

I'd like to try dancing bachata one day, and perhaps a dance that's not a partner dance (because it sucks sometimes when you get creepy or mansplaining people). Pole dancing may be beyond me, but I admire the strength and grace involved. I wouldn't mind trying scuba diving, perhaps getting a license. Kayaking too, especially as I live near the coast, and I did enjoy my first taste of it earlier this year, going through mangrove forests and karsts in Thailand.

It occurs to me while writing this that I've tried more movement than I thought!

[rmc28]

Hi! I'm Rachel, and I'm currently nearly a year out of five months intensive chemotherapy for leukaemia. I spent most of that five months in bed most of each day, with consequent loss of cardiovascular fitness and muscle mass. So since the start of this year I've been working on recovery.

The first thing was getting fit enough to get to work, which I restarted in mid-February. I live and work in Cambridge, UK and my primary transport in normal life is walking and cycling. Until mid-September my normal commute was a 5-6km bike ride in the morning and an approx 2km walk in the evening (with my spouse doing the inverse - we work in the same building so swapped the bike over). As of mid-September, both children are in the same place during the day and spouse and I are generally walking both ways to work, but not usually together.

As of about June I've been consciously using my fitbit watch to monitor and push my daily step and activity count up sustainably, and am tantalisingly close to my arbitrary prerequisites for restarting running. I am trying very hard not to look too far ahead, but other things I would like eventually to be doing as well are: swimming, rock-climbing (ideally with older child), dancing (probably adult ballet and tap classes at the dance school that younger child attends).


As a child and teen I did: swimming, gymnastics, ballet, tap, judo, taekwondo, netball, hockey, tennis & rugby. Not all at once, and not at any higher level than playing for my school or college. I became a regular gym user in college, and a few years afterward discovered rock climbing, which I did enthusiastically and not especially skillfully for several years until I got pregnant with older child. I haven't climbed since, but miss it greatly. I think I was in my mid-twenties before I stopped thinking of myself as "academic/not sporty" and realised that I was fundamentally happier if I did some form of exercise regularly, preferably out of doors. And also that I didn't have to be "good" at it to enjoy it.

I did power-walking for a couple of years before getting pregnant with my second child, including doing the London Moonwalk (a power-walked marathon), which was my private marker for "you are now fit enough to face being pregnant again". I took up running after my younger child was born, using Couch-to-5k (and setting up c25k for mutual support with other beginners), mostly because it seemed to offer a better effort/time ratio than power walking, and had the delighted surprise of coming to love running a lot. I will probably never be a fast runner but I love it anyway.

I have been living with RSI in my hands and wrists since about 2001 - which was helped greatly by doing rock climbing - and migraine since about 2004. The cancer + chemo has left me easily fatigued. I am constantly aware that I have a single limited pool of energy supplying my ability to work, study, exercise & socialise, and the penalty for overdrawing is exhaustion, susceptibility to colds, and migraines. Increasing that pool of energy by steadily and sustainably increasing my physical stamina and fitness is my fundamental goal.

Most recently, in the last couple of months, I have started consciously using the fitbit to target getting enough sleep. Averaging 8-9 hours a night gives me noticeably more energy than averaging 6-7 hours, and it seems that over a week I actually get more done when I hit that 8+ hours, even if I feel like I am forever going to bed early with things left undone.