Exercise for Fun

I am a competitive dancer on a high school dance team who between the months of October and February spends 13 hours or more a week practicing. Dancing is my passion and it brings me great joy. It is the only sport I participate in and it provides me with a great workout every day. It allows me to be in top shape during the season and during the summer when we have pre-season practice as well. Overall, it is a great way to get into shape, but I didn’t always see it that way.

I struggled with the idea that the only way to actually be in shape meant I needed to go to the gym and run on the treadmill or do countless ab workouts that I looked up on Pinterest. My idea of having perfect workouts was intensified by family youtubers with thin figures. I saw them post videos of themselves running or lifting weights on their Instagram and Snapchat accounts. When my friends and I saw these, we would feel “inspired” to work out like them. Even when I had an hour of personal training, I would often stay after my sessions to workout with friends because they were feeling that motivation. I fell into the trap of the “perfect workout”. Don’t get me wrong, working out at the gym is a great way to exercise, but it’s not the only way to be healthy and in shape.

Thankfully, I finally understood that I don’t need to go to the gym all the time in order to be healthy. Dance is a great way for me to workout and it keeps me in shape for the who year. It is also an activity that I love to do, which makes the intensity of the workout almost unnoticeable. I realized that since it is easier for me to get through three our long dance practice as opposed to running for 30 minutes on the treadmill, that the longer dance workout is actually a better use of my time. I truly enjoy it!

Throughout all of this I realized, do workouts that you enjoy, and only do them because you want to do them. The more fun you have during your exercise, the more bearable it is, and the better you will feel afterwards. Exercise isn’t just about going to the gym, there are plenty of options out there. For example, go to a yoga class, take your dog on a long walk on a nice day, or dance a playlist out with your besties to get that cardio going! Don’t forget that it’s your workout routine, and your body, so have fun with it!