Rippling muscles, sheer strength, glistening sweaty skin...
Tell me honestly, you thought of a brawny hunk working out at the gym, didn't you? Now this is where you have to shake that image out of your mind and imagine the soft curved arm of a woman holding a pair of mean-looking dumbbells and working it! It's time to challenge the stereotype.
If a girl is skinny, the world tempts her to get curvy. If a girl is curvy, the world taunts her to shed some kilos or says, "you are so soft and cuddly!" However, Im not going to talk sizes. I totally get the idea that we are all manufactured in different sizes like the matryoshka dolls. What I am going to talk about is the fact that every Matryoshka doll, regardless of the size, needs to exercise.
If you think there is nothing better that curling up with a book and cup of hot chocolate, I'd say you haven't tried walking briskly to the park bench; taking off your shoes and reading a book in the sunshine. If your idea of sweating it out is half an hour in the sauna, I'd say you have to try running with the sweat running down your forehead. If not having enough time is the threadbare worn excuse you hide behind; try doing yoga in your office chair; or teacher's chair, or your bus seat...
When you have run 10 kms or done 10 reps of burpees or indulged in 10 minutes of dance fitness; what you do not see is your heart beating with the renewed determination to beat on. But you have just added something to your life; could be time or maybe meaning. If my pep talk is starting to sound like the 10th round of a bicycle crunches routine, that's because I have hit the spot where it hurts; the core! You know you should get off your backside and do some jumping jacks at least!
And while you are thinking whether you should take up running or aerobics or yoga or pilates, I have just realised that I haven't even touched upon the initial question - Why should a woman exercise?!
Imagine the scene. A man with a beer belly struts in with just a slight intake of breath, which he believes would make his belly disappear. A woman of not so bad proportions would walk by feeling endless eyes on her arms that were just a bit too fat; her belly fat rubbing against the waistband and the stretch marks on her calves. From as way back as Snow White's time, women have rarely been happy with what they see in the mirror. I'm sure you will all agree that men and women are wired differently. So what's the solution?
Get up girl. Get the heart rate up. When the blood pumps through you after a challenging work out, it carries those magical little creatures called endorphins that make bulges disappear; and even the mirror smiles back at you. Next time you hear the words rippling muscles, sheer strength, glistening sweaty skin...think of yourself.
Tell me honestly, you thought of a brawny hunk working out at the gym, didn't you? Now this is where you have to shake that image out of your mind and imagine the soft curved arm of a woman holding a pair of mean-looking dumbbells and working it! It's time to challenge the stereotype.
If a girl is skinny, the world tempts her to get curvy. If a girl is curvy, the world taunts her to shed some kilos or says, "you are so soft and cuddly!" However, Im not going to talk sizes. I totally get the idea that we are all manufactured in different sizes like the matryoshka dolls. What I am going to talk about is the fact that every Matryoshka doll, regardless of the size, needs to exercise.
If you think there is nothing better that curling up with a book and cup of hot chocolate, I'd say you haven't tried walking briskly to the park bench; taking off your shoes and reading a book in the sunshine. If your idea of sweating it out is half an hour in the sauna, I'd say you have to try running with the sweat running down your forehead. If not having enough time is the threadbare worn excuse you hide behind; try doing yoga in your office chair; or teacher's chair, or your bus seat...
When you have run 10 kms or done 10 reps of burpees or indulged in 10 minutes of dance fitness; what you do not see is your heart beating with the renewed determination to beat on. But you have just added something to your life; could be time or maybe meaning. If my pep talk is starting to sound like the 10th round of a bicycle crunches routine, that's because I have hit the spot where it hurts; the core! You know you should get off your backside and do some jumping jacks at least!
And while you are thinking whether you should take up running or aerobics or yoga or pilates, I have just realised that I haven't even touched upon the initial question - Why should a woman exercise?!
Imagine the scene. A man with a beer belly struts in with just a slight intake of breath, which he believes would make his belly disappear. A woman of not so bad proportions would walk by feeling endless eyes on her arms that were just a bit too fat; her belly fat rubbing against the waistband and the stretch marks on her calves. From as way back as Snow White's time, women have rarely been happy with what they see in the mirror. I'm sure you will all agree that men and women are wired differently. So what's the solution?
Get up girl. Get the heart rate up. When the blood pumps through you after a challenging work out, it carries those magical little creatures called endorphins that make bulges disappear; and even the mirror smiles back at you. Next time you hear the words rippling muscles, sheer strength, glistening sweaty skin...think of yourself.
