Recharge: Leveling up your health
Not one for holding myself to any sort of structured fitness regimen, I find it amusing that so much of my work experience stemmed from a job at a fitness center developing and running games and activities for teenagers. Hell, I also guided tours in a kayak on the Hudson River. And as such, it became mostly rote for me to keep active and engaged throughout any given day, with a sprinkling of extra exercise here and there.
But as I've moved to a more sedentary work environment, it's become more and more difficult to get myself motivated to exercise. Which is why I'm thankful for bike shares in Manhattan, and the opportunity to take a boxing class once a week. However, it's all of the other time that I have (or lack thereof) that's the problem.
As a lot of you can sympathize with, there's that single moment when you come back from work and sit down on your bed or your sofa, that all strength and motivation leaves your body in a puff of futility. It's almost agonizing to get up and do something, even though the dishes are dirty and the laundry is piling up.
So you sit there, collecting dust while you stress out about all the things that you have to do. And I do the same thing, as I imagine what it's like to actually get a good work out in.
And then I put on a Dragon Ball Z movie.
And I have to say, it was a very good choice. It brought me back to the late 90's when I ran around the playground pretending to be Goku, throwing ki blasts and yelling. (I got more than my fair share of weird looks.) At the time, the show represented a far off goal, one where if I imagined hard enough, I could eventually reach it. Obviously, what is possible in DBZ isn't possible in real life. But imagining what it would be like to experience it was able to spark something inside of me. Every time I ever participated in anything athletic, I superimposed an image of Goku unto myself, creating a super powered alter ego.
As I thought about that, I realized that what I had done was give myself an incentive. I remained active because somewhere in my head I knew that if I could never be like Goku, I could at least slowly work my way up to something better than I was. I wanted to feel like I could become a warrior, a hero, again. And that gave way to reigniting a desire to get in shape.
And so I've decided to try and keep this trend going. I did some pushups, some weights, some shadow boxing, and I plan to keep better track of what I do, so that I can turn each little achievement that I make into the next stepping stone for my personal growth. I want to channel that desire to improve, that need to advance to the next level because it's there. Funny, it reminded me of Pokemon when I would fervently pursue the next evolutionary stage with a reckless abandon. And it made me realize why there were so many transformations in DBZ: it was because we have a distinct desire to move ourselves up the ladder in any way possible. Horizontal movement doesn't cut it, I want to feel as if I'm progressing. I want to become stronger, and push past my current limits, but in order to do that, I'm going to need discipline. And a lot of experience points. But that fills me with a giddy anticipation.
And maybe with a little effort, that feeling won't go away anytime soon.