This is one reason why I work out

E

elsie3

Cathlete
I got into strengh training for weight loss and to gain all the health benefits (especially later in life). But I had an experience today that illustrates why I love to be strong. It's so great to be "functionally fit." I was at the bus stop this morning when I noticed that my tiny little neighbor was trying to get her garbage contained out. It was past full and very heavy--she couldn't even get it turned around. It was so nice to be able to help her! I said to my son (later, of course): "This is one of the reasons that I exercise." It helps with everything from lugging kids around to going to the grocery store (especially Sam's Club and the buckets of laundry soap).

I can't keep up with Cathe. . .yet;-) , but it's nice to be able to do things.
 
Hey Elsie, that's great! Feels good to be strong, doesn't it? DH brags about my strength to all his friends. Last night I helped him load up amps & speakers & thingys like that & he marvelled again that I could lift them.
Fun! (And useful, of course.)
Wish I'd known about this years ago. You go Elsie!

Ruth:) :)
 
I love that statement. My reasons are kind of the same. I started for the same reasons you did, but now years later things like going to the grocery store and really being able to lift those heavy bags and although petite being able to handle things myself is a great feeling. I also love that I have more energy and that when my family sees me working out, they can't believe I can handle it!! Just watching me makes them tired.
 
I work out because I have "NEVER EVER" felt as healthy, sexy, or strong as I do "NOW" in comparrision to my 20s and 30s

I work out because I LOVE the stares and wistles I get from "younger men"
(Hey! construction workers can wistle and yell all they like, I have no problem with that)

I work out because I can finally place my husband of 5ft11 into a head lock, and hold him there, until I get what I want............more tapes of course!

Marion




:) :)
 
This reminds me of the other day at work when there was ice on the ground. I looked outside and saw a 50 year old woman trying to hold her elderly mother up as she fell while trying to get into her car. I came behind her and lifted up the mother enough so she could get her rear end in the car instead of falling. I felt so strong and it made me think of Cathe and all of you:)

My husband even told me the other day "you think you're so strong" I told him that I may not be as strong as him...yet -but I'm a heck of alot stronger than I ever have been. Someday he'll pay for poking fun at me when I workout}( ;-)
 
>I still can't open jars though, despite all the weight
>training.


I hate that! It is such a puzzle to me that I can do a heavy weight workout and feel strong, but a bout with the pickle jar always makes me feel like a wimp!
 
I was just thinking about this a few times recently. The first was a few weeks ago when we were in Disney. We were trying to watch the show in front of Cinderella's castle but were stuck way in the back. DH was holding our two year-old and I was holding my older daughter who weighs 48 pounds. I am only 5'4", so she still couldn't see well with me holding her on my hip, so I lifted her up and sat her on my shoulders. You should have seen the look on DH's face when he turned around. He couldn't believe I lifted her like that. Not to mention the fact that it was 80+ degrees.
Last weekend we took the kids to the tree lighting on our downtown, and he was complaining about holding the same daughter. I was thinking about lifting her onto my shoulders a few weeks earlier and just had to smile to myself. :)
It's the little things in life!
Bobbi
 
I had an experience that really made me glad I work out a few years ago. I was riding my bike when the chain broke, so I was walking it on the side of the road. I had my Walkman on, singing along to Sting, when I got hit from behind by a car. He hit me with the side mirror and I went flying (actually knocked me out of my sneakers!). It was a total "what the..." moment. If I hadn't been in such good shape, I'm sure I would have been a lot more hurt than some bruised ribs.
 
OMG Donna! that is terrible! did they stop? my dad and all my brothers bike alot and i can't imagine him getting hit. scary! hope you are ok! they at the very least owe you several pair of shoes.

i am glad i work out because i just feel better and soon i will look better too. }( it is getting easier to carry my dogs around though:)

jes
 
I have 2 little ones 4 and 5. They both weigh just about 35 lbs. I can carry one on each hip when they get tired. I get some looks walking around like that!

When they were smaller I went hiking with a guy friend of mine who had about an 8 lb infant - mine were 23 and 30 lbs at the time. We got about a mile from the car and my older girl pooped out. I had her on my hip and my little one in the backpack. He offered to carry, but I said "You gotta pack out what you pack in!"

Melissa
 
Oh yeah, Jes. It sounds a lot worse than it really was. The guy who hit me stopped. He was actually a doctor! It definitely wasn't a good road for me to be walking on, but I had to because it was the only way to get home! Like I said, I had some bruised ribs and a really nasty bruise on my leg, but I was back to normal in a few days. Plus...well, my doctor had just brought in a new partner who is this really hunky, young osteopath and he took care of me. It was quite nice having him checking my ribs....

People ask me what it's like to be hit by a car, and I tell them it's what I imagine it would be like to get sacked by Bruce Smith (who was our amazing Defensive End for the Bills up until 1999, when he went to the Redskins). Luckily I was only clipped by the side mirror. When I see film of someone getting hit by the front of a car, it does a little mental job on me.

I actually think I might have a little guardian angel because when I was 19, I fell off a balconey (28') onto the blacktop parking lot at the hotel I was staying at in Daytona on Spring Break. I broke my pelvis and foot, but other than a slight case of scoliosis, I had no permanent damage. (and the arthritis that's creeping its way in...)
 
>>I still can't open jars though, despite all the weight
>>training.
>
>
>I hate that! It is such a puzzle to me that I can do a heavy
>weight workout and feel strong, but a bout with the pickle jar
>always makes me feel like a wimp!


:7 LOL!! That is so funny. I'm so glad I'm not the only one.
 
Pretty much the same here, I work out because I love being fit, and I love that I can wear petite clothes again...I love it that I have strength in my body and I can do much more than I used to sex is much better. I can help load and unload wood, we have a wood heater.
Its great to be fit, and its great to look good in my clothes again at 45 ............... Rhonda:7
 
Like many here, my reasons for working out have morphed over time, and now I work out to feel great and feel strong - which are sometimes interchangeable, yes?

Have had several glistening moments like those already cited:

When I went to pick up all of my many million textbooks for my paralegal courses, I loaded all of them (hardcovers mostly) into a big box and in the presence of a waiflike 23-year-old and her doofus husband, hiked the entire box up, walked down two long hallways, rode down in the elevator and plopped them in the car. Waiflike remembered that when we were in class together . . .

AND

A few weeks ago, a man who works at my building who is severely mobility-challenged fell down off his crutches and lay like a poor little beached whale right there in the front of the building. I was able, after getting his permission to help, lift him back up onto his feet (while I was in heels yet) so that someone else could give him his crutches and he could regain his balance.

I love being strong. And I will never shun lifting heavier and heavier in the fear that I might "bulk up" or look "unfeminine". I'm through making decisions based on freak notions of female aesthetics at the expense of my own physical and emotional well-being.

A-Jock
 
A-Jock...what do you look like? I read you posts and like what you say, and i have this vision of you in my mind (nothing scary honest!) and was just wondering what you really look like.
 
I found that the devices to help the elderly to open jars work really well! Or, place a kitchen towel on the floor, flip the jar over and bang it lid down on the floor, it really helps to break the air seal.
 
Hi, Wayne - I'm not sure what I look like, but more than one person has told me I have a passing resemblance to Demi Moore (no lie, and I was pretty flattered). I have a picture of her and Bruce Willis from her filming days of "G.I. Jane" when she was bald, and I must say I have a better skull than she does.

Height: 5'3"
Weight: Unknown
Dress/pants size: 0
Eyes: 2 (hazel)

Fairly well muscled all over; broad shoulders, tapered waist, tummy flat (thank you Cathe!); skinny forearms and fingers and skinny calves (that's the Portugese in me). Still bald and loving it (thank you, Alopecia!).

A-Jock


Still bald.
 
Yup! Gotta say, I am really happy knowing I am strong. Good ol' functional fitness enhances my life in many ways, but in particular while grocery shopping and in my mother-duties (lifting, carrying, etc). I was in a kitchen store a few weeks ago and decided to buy an entire new set of expensive pots and pans. I lifted the very large box off the shelf and began carrying it to the cashier. On the way a sales woman came rushing over and said "Can I get you a cart?" I politely declined and kept walking, but nothing made me more pleased than to see her surprised and disbelieving face as I continued on my merry way.

Me eats me spinach!
Sandra
 
Wow!! Your that petite and can do things like that. I agree with you, women shouldn't be afraid to lift heavy. I think it's pretty cool that your strong and confident in yourself. Good for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top