If you want to maintain health throughout your lifetime, you don’t have a choice about moving your body. Whatever you call "moving your body", the question is not IF you move, but WHERE you move. You need to have a space where you can exercise, dance, lift, aerobicize, stretch, practice, work your core, pedal, run, do yoga, Pilates or calisthenics. True, the world can be your gym, but when the weather doesn’t cooperate or when you’re crunched for time sometimes the best space for a workout is right in your own home sweet home. My office is actually at a gym on campus at Kalamazoo College. However, as my work life gets more involved, it is increasingly difficult to get away and workout, shower, and make the next meeting or class. I find it much easier to wake early and get my workout in before even setting foot outside my house.
A simple internet search for home fitness will point you toward everything you need to purchase to do your fitness at home. Buy this DVD program; purchase that piece of equipment; engage this particular trainer. As a professor of health and fitness, I understand the need for commerce in the profession. I am a board member for inerTRAIN, which provides online access to a personal trainer. I agree that no home gym is complete without the "stuff." But, I believe that before you create any space that will become your fitness sanctuary, you must ‘know thyself,’ as the ancient Greek aphorism teaches. Where are you most inspired? What thoughts do you need to make you move? How about the sounds, smells or images of your life? Your space needs to be one that calls to you, attracts you, awakens you and affirms your active, healthy, fit lifestyle. You won’t be able to stay away from it!
Before you pay for a lot of stuff for your fitness space, first pay attention to your senses to identify what your room will look and feel like. After my boys moved out of the house and their teenage hangout was no longer a necessity in our home, the TV sanctuary in our basement turned into a ghost town, until I realized that it could now become MY sanctuary!
Since both of those boys pursued baseball in college and were drafted into the Detroit Tigers’ organization (my favorite team since childhood), I find great meaning and purpose in the themes of my family and baseball. I painted the walls orange and blue, bought FatHeads, or big stickers for the walls, with the Detroit Tiger theme. I ordered Fatheads of my boys pitching - life size action photos so they inspire me to do one more minute on the bike or one more set of sit-ups. They are my biggest inspiration, right there on the wall, as big as life! Their jerseys from the teams they have played on hang from the ceiling in one corner, and inspirational Detroit Tiger memorabilia hang on other walls.
My younger son installed his surround-sound system in there and now I rock out to whatever music moves me on that particular day. The older son left his weight bench so I can bench or squat if the spirit moves me. I have dumbbells up to 20 pounds, a yoga mat, 2 plyo-balls, a TRX trainer, and ankle weights. The cardio comes from my bike mounted on a stationary trainer or a full-body routine I learned several years ago with hand weights and some loud music. I have a TV in the corner that can play fitness videos. Forty-five minutes in that room and my senses are awake with color and sound, my body is awake with sweat, increased oxygenation, more strength and balance, a great feeling of accomplishment, and I begin the day with a perfect dose of exercise.
Research tells us about all the benefits of exercise for the body and mind, and affirms activity as a means for a happy and fulfilled life. Even people in their eighties can begin a program and reap benefits - you are never too old to move! Know thyself first and the surroundings of your home gym will follow closely behind. Let’s get going!
The 2010 season marked the 27th volleyball campaign for Kalamazoo College head coach Jeanne Hess, whose tenure at "K" has been a very successful one. In addition to coaching volleyball, Hess serves as professor in and chair of the Department of Physical Education and has served as an assistant in both the women's basketball (1991-95) and softball (1996-2001) programs... continue>>
