Unconventional Fitness

When I was a kid I didn't have any problems with keeping fit and active. Dinnertimes were full of running around, and I couldn't wait to go outside and play with my friends. We were lucky enough to have bikes, scooters and roller blades. Staying in was BORING, playing out was THE BEST TIME EVER!

As with most people, once you get a bit older exercise becomes less spontaneous and more of a planned activity. Sure I played a bit of netball and rounders at school, but I was always eager to just get up and do something rather than sit in front of the TV. You didn't need to pay for someone to show you how to exercise when you were a kid, not really, you just went outside and played. For me, the best keep-fit class would be a massive game of delivo (apparently this a northern term for it, but it's basically hide and seek where you have to race people to a 'base'). A lot of fitness/outdoors activities for adults seem to emulate childhood playground games, like paintballing or assault courses or zombie runs, as their basic element is that it's fun to run around and play a game. But as an adult you've now got to pay for that privilege, otherwise it's just a bit weird...

I guess what I'm saying is that exercise has to be fun for you to enjoy it. Even better if you don't even see it as exercise, but as a fun activity that you enjoy. I don't believe in dragging yourself to the gym and hating every god. damn. step on that treadmill just so you can fit into smaller clothes. You end up hating it and feeling like a failure, which isn't good for anyone's self esteem. I understand that some people enjoy exercising solo, and that running alone provides them with some literal and metaphorical breathing space, but I only like to run when I'm being chased by a giant PTERODACTYL THAT HAS MASSIVE LAZER CANNONS ON ITS WINGS AND BREATHES FIRE AND WE HAVE TO RUN ACROSS A MASSIVE ROPE BRIDGE BUT IT MIGHT BREAK AT ANY MOMENT AND FALL TO OUR DEATHS. You get the idea...

What I've found works best is finding a team sport that you really enjoy doing. Something where you work to get better at something and learn new skills, rather than increasing reps at the gym. Sure there's some skill and effort involved in press ups and lunges, but it's not that fun and I personally find it really dull.

I used to do majorettes for about six years when I was a teenager (I'm such a northerner). And it was the combination of some epic routines with camaraderie that made every training session and every competition fun and enjoyable. It wasn't about the exercise - it was about winning the next competition and getting better at our routines. When you take the focus off weight-loss, staying active becomes so much easier.

(Circa 2002. I'm somewhere in this line...)

When I went to university, however, I seemed to forget my own advice. Exercise wasn't fun anymore. I joined the gym and went swimming twice a week like a real 'grown-up', but I inevitably got bored and gave up.

After graduating, I was on the hunt for something that combined exercise and having a pretty ace time. That's when I stumbled (appropriate choice of words) across roller derby. I've been training once a week for a few months now with the Rainy City Roller Girls in Oldham and I'm absolutely loving it. The sessions usually last two hours, and although I'm not skating constantly for those two hours, I feel like I'm getting a pretty good workout. What I also love about roller derby is that it seems to have adopted a mantra of 'health at any size', which is great. Roller derby girls come in all different shapes and sizes, but they can all kick your asses on the rink. Plus, you get to skate around and fall over, and have loads of fun and that's part of the game.

http://www.rcrg.co.uk/

There's a great sense of community as well, as many of the established skaters help to train us newbies :)

I've only missed one session since I first started, and although Mondays come around quick, I always look forward to the next time I can skate. Falling over isn't a big deal any more and I feel much more confident and less meek and mild - even in general life! It's really great seeing myself improve at something as well. Hopefully the next time I write an update I'll have improved even more.

For me, exercise needs to be fun (have I said that enough in this post?) and it also needs to have a community surrounding it. It's not just about the actual exercise, it's about everything that comes along with it - the other players, the training sessions, the friendships and the bruises... Why do you think slimming groups see the highest success rates when it comes to weight loss? It's because everything's a lot easier and definitely much more fun when you're not slogging away on your own.


This post is my entry into the Where Are My Knees competition in association with http://www.moneysupermarket.com

Freshers' Flu Blues?

So Freshers Week is upon us once again, and for many of Manchester’s first year students this weeklong cycle of drinking, dancing and Popolino’s pizzas will give birth to numerous anecdotes: “Do you remember that time in Freshers when…?” But for some students however, Freshers’ Week, like many other highly anticipated social events (I’m looking at you New Year’s Eve) may fail to live up to such high expectations.

Before going to university you may have heard epic tales of drunken debauchery involving traffic cones and sprained ankles, but it’s very likely that no-one ever told you that at some point during your first week you will find yourself crying in the toilets of some club with a girl who you’ve just met over how you miss your friends from college and how great they are and how you only just broke up with your boyfriend because you’re going to uni and it just wasn’t going to work anymore. This. is. normal. And inevitable. Moving to a completely new city away from your parents and friends is hard, no matter how easy some people make it look. Think about it, when was the last time you had to create a whole new social circle from scratch? If you’ve carried the same friends through both primary and secondary school and then to sixth form, you’ve probably never been in this sort of situation before AND been away from home. Of course this can be the best thing about university, you can be whoever you want to be and ‘start again’ in a sense, but it can also be the worst thing about university and it’s something many people struggle with.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘everyone’s in the same boat’ one too many times from friends and relatives as you slowly pack away all of your belongings and say your goodbyes, but it is true, despite the fact that it may seem like everyone else is on the party boat whilst you look on from the shoreline. If it feels like you’re sat in your room watching iPlayer whilst everyone else is out enjoying themselves, then do something about it. Get involved: suggest going to the pub after a seminar, join a society, invite people round to your halls for DVDs, add people on Facebook. Whatever you do, don’t isolate yourself and don’t suffer in silence.

If you’re finding it particularly hard to settle in to university life, then talk to someone. Most universities have great support systems in place for first years. Contact your personal tutor, or one of your seminar leaders. If you have a 2^nd or 3^rd year mentor, talk to them - they’re great at helping out with questions you might not want to talk to a tutor about. Your union should also be able to give you some help and advice. They most likely have a range of contact options available so check their website or read through all the pieces of paper you’ve been handed at Freshers Fair. You could also contact Nightline, which is a confidential listening service run by students for students if you don’t feel comfortable approaching anyone.

Your first few weeks at university can be amazing, but they can also be pretty overwhelming at times. The best thing to do is to realise this and accept it, and ask for help if you need it. Yes, you’ll miss the group of friends that you had at school, and yes, there’ll be times when you’ll wish that your flatmate would flush the toilet just this once, but despite all of this you’ll make some equally amazing uni friends and some equally amazing memories. With your own traffic cone to boot. 

(me and @jack_efc having an ace time in first year)
(yes, I shouldn't have dressed up as a geisha as it's part of Japanese culture and not a fancy dress costume, but I was a naive first year...)

Why every little girl should see Disney Pixar's Brave

Since Dreamworks' Shrek turned the classic fairytale model on its head in 2001, many films aimed at families have continued to rework old myths and legends in an attempt to update them for a modern audience. Disney Pixar's Brave does just that and Merida, the young princess of Clan DunBrock, is a far cry from the usual fairytale princesses of the Disney archives with her untamed ginger hair and immense archery skills.

Merida's mother, however, has more traditional views on how a princess should behave, and insists that Merida learns how to behave 'properly' and act 'like a lady' - a princess 'rises early', 'does nae stuff her gob' *nom nom nom* and 'doesn't place her weapons on the table'. It's a constant battle between how Merida's mother, Elinor, wants her daughter to act and how Merida actually presents herself to the world. Kind of like the old-fashioned version of someone telling you that you can't drink out of a pint glass because it's 'unladylike', or a bloke saying that women can't play football because it's a male sport, or that girls don't fart *parp*...

Instead of aimlessly wandering around the woods singing 'one day my prince will come' to a swarm of woodland animals who are transfixed by her beauty and do her every bidding (pick your Disney classic), Merida also decides to take charge of her fate and change it. Her life goal is not marriage. Hurrah! She fights for her own hand in marriage by beating all of her suitors in a game of archery. She quite literally breaks out of her constricting dress to do so however, which cleverly depicts how women's fashion and women's rights can, and have gone, hand in hand. You can't do much if you're forced to wear clothing which not only inhibits your every movement but also your breathing. The addition of a female director (Brenda Chapman) to Pixar's predominately male creative team has clearly had an effect and is definitely something that should have happened a long time ago.

Without revealing too much, the plot does not center around a romantic relationship, in fact there isn't even a hint of it when it comes to Merida, instead it's about the relationship between a mother and a daughter, which rivals that of the father-son relationship in Finding Nemo. One particular scene between Merida and Elinor towards the end is especially heart-rending, and will resonate with any girl or woman who has ever felt misunderstood or suffocated by their mother (or even any mother who has ever felt snubbed by their daughter). They go on a journey together and the customary Disney happy ending is not one in which Merida finally conforms to her mother's wishes, but that they eventually learn how to listen to each other's frustrations with a new found understanding of one another.

But just when you think that Pixar have successfully managed to create a story which both tackles gender stereotypes and maintains plenty of fanatsy, magic and humour, the marketing and merchandising team release this...

(source: @meanderingmthr)

Which yet again shows just how strong such gender roles remain for young girls. How about a toy bow and arrow set or something like that? No, instead we get makeup jewellery and a trinket box.

FACE PALM.

*all images copyright Disney Pixar yadda yadda...