By Tracy Williams, Syndicated Columnist
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE —
By Tracy Williams/Syndicated columnist
In the decade I was born the fitness guru at that time was Jack Lalanne who recently died at the age of four-hundred and something; let’s say he was really old. He was still working out.
By the 70’s, our fitness lifestyle was starting to kick in with Arnold the Terminator making bulging muscles sexy. Now his muscles are a bit shrunken and his reputation is a bit more shrunken than his muscles.
We also began jogging in the 70’s and women began working out in jazzercise classes. It was little Richard Simmons who began crying with women, shouting through the television screen to put the buttered toast down and get up.
Women started to desire the toned look over the soft womanly curves of Marilyn Monroe and full figure Jane Russell.
By the 80’s Jane Fonda made leggings and body suits a common fashion ware and the nation was doing aerobics with our wonderful VHS players at home.
By the 90’s women were embracing Yoga and then Pilates; body sculpting with weights and hitting the gyms in record number.
All of this was the prequel to our exercise obsessed nation of today where it seems the more we exercise the more we fight obesity.
Could exercise make us fat?
Now it’s the time of Zumba -- unless you are a real fitness obsessed person, they are in to Px90. One week of the extreme Px90 would put me in an exercise coma. Just sayin’.
Maybe you have no idea what Zumba is and maybe you could care less, but it is consuming the minds and bodies of citizens across the country, especially women. Classes are forming everywhere; even churches have signs in front of their buildings proclaiming Zumba classes. You can praise God while losing weight.
The television plays Zumba infomercials constantly. It is a Latin dance cardio- party that is melting pounds, shaping bodies, and bringing people together in a fun, party atmosphere.
It’s also providing chiropractors and orthopedic physicians a booming business.
Yes, I Zumba’d. Yes, I aggravated my knee and had to wear a brace for a while. However, I would still recommend to Zumba rather than not.
For the easily injured, or previously injured, be careful. Zumba can hurt. But not getting healthy can kill. So, to Zumba or not to Zumba is the question we all must face.
If you are embarrassed to join a class or time is an issue, like myself, buy the Dvd’s and learn the steps at home in the privacy of your living room. But, let me warn you, during your home experience your instructors are three very buffed, very hot, very sexy, mid-drift baring women who hopefully inspire you to do better or make you feel depressed that the ship to look like them has passed!
Note: I was depressed; my husband was thrilled!
Expert Zumba instructors recommend wearing proper shoes because with so many side to side steps, twisting and shifting weight, you can move some things around besides fat cells. More chiropractors claim their clients have benefited from the Zumba workout than been injured, so with caution, proceed ahead.
Beware that if you get all toned and buff that you too could be criticized such as the story on Good Morning America where they discussed critics are displeased with the muscled females such as Kelly Rippa, Madonna, and Cameron Diaz.
Yuck, who would want to look like them? I would!
Who are ‘they’ that complain? Where are these muscle-less, critics that sit around and complain that women are looking too healthy? Women can’t catch a break.
We are too old to anchor, but Diane Sawyer looks great at a mature age. We are too overweight for Hooters, to be either superstar singers or actresses, and we are either too smart or too dumb for anything else.
The journey to accepting ourselves is littered with bumps of insecurities, critics, and intentional destroyers from other people that like to tear down rather than build up.
Each of us must decide the road we will take, to make exercise a priority, or to even make it an obsession. To be healthy, women need to find some form of exercise, even if it’s walking.
You can put on your proper footwear and find a Zumba class and have a lot of fun while exercising, you can buy a treadmill and watch your soaps while in the comfort of your home, or grab a friend and hit the walking trails.
Just do something.
Quit making excuses because poor health takes a lot of time in your schedule. Think of the times when you feel too bad to finish cleaning the house; your head hurts so you miss a day of work; or you can’t take a walk with your kids cause you can’t keep up with them. Your missing parts and pieces of life when you neglect your body.
For now, I have hung up my Zumba shoes and rolled out my Pilates mat, and I will visit my gym for some weight training and elliptical time, my weekends are filled with canoeing, hiking, and biking. You would think with all of this activity that I would lose at least one pound. Not!
About My Hometown
Tracy Williams is a syndicated columnist and can be reached via Face Book at My Hometown Column. Become a Fan.
