partsRheavy’s BodyBlog

One of the reasons that I work out is that I can forsee a time when physical fitness will be more of a requirement for everyday life (for everyone) than it is now. 

I think that time will come when gas gets to $4.50 or $5 a gallon. 

When I walk into a store and see young (20s and 30s) but clearly fat people, I want to tell them to start walking or lifting some weights NOW so that in a year or two if gas gets really expensive they will be able to walk to a bus stop or ride a bicycle 5 times a week if necessary.  I restrain myself though.

That crisis time could hit as soon as July or August of this year.  2006 and 2007 were really mild hurricane seasons.  But remember that the first spike to $3/gallon gas was in August-September of ‘05 after Katrina and Rita.  We don’t know if 2008 will be another mild or active hurricane season. 

A lot of folks lift and do cardio for appearance.  That’s OK, but there’s a little more to it than just one’s own body.  It’s about being able to function in a changing economy and society.

A lot of women get hung up with soooo many body image issues.  Frankly, I hardly care.  I’ll never be Miss America or a supermodel.  I’m looking for functional strength and health.  I w/o in a "guys’ gym."  I WANT the noise —- I hear noise every day at the factory.  Dropping things happens every now and then - who cares?!  I use the free weights - the bench and the squat rack.  The machines are used last, if at all.  I vary the routine just about every w/o, although I focus on chest for Mon, Back for Weds. and Legs for Fri.  It’s almost a powerlifting philosophy but I use bb type diet and a mixture of workouts to keep the body fat percentage to something that’s proportionate.  I started at around 28%.  Don’t know what I am now.  There’s a BodPod at a relatively close college campus, so I’ll go there later this spring (after some outdoor cardio) and have it checked out.

My parents rode bicycles regularly to go shopping and to the post office.  I grew up around bikes…before the age of spandex LOL!  My folks were cognizant of conserving energy - the opposite of the average SUV driver. 

Yes - people in our California town thought we were a little odd.

I don’t ride my bike much at the moment, but I believe a time will come when I’ll be riding a lot more to include bicycle commuting.

That time has been coming awfully quickly the last couple of weeks as oil has jumped from ~$95-105 per barrel. 

I want to advise folks reading this that NOW is a really good time to start adding functional strength and endurance…no matter what your activity or sport is.  Those who are, say, 28 years old at 40% bf and haven’t exercised since high school will be a lot better off if they start NOW in a gym or YMCA than next year if they find themselves forced to walk three miles each way to work because they can’t afford to fill their car’s gas tank.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.