21DFC Day 8 – What is Your Favorite Fitness Activity?

This is Day 8 of the 21-Day Fitness Challenge held in Feb 2012. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hello and welcome to Week 2 of the 21-Day Fitness Challenge! :D Today is Day 8 (Feb 10).

Throughout Week 1, I wrote about my pursuit towards a fitter life, obstacles faced in pursuit of that, how I overcame them, and reflections along the way. I hope you have found my logs useful in your 21DFC journey. :) Below are my journals FYR (for your reference):

Since my fitness regime will be pretty much the same moving forward, I’ll be using a different format for 21DFC as of today. For this week, Week 2, I shall present a daily question related to fitness for your introspection. One question every day, for the rest of the week.

The objective of these questions is to help you channel your natural passion for fitness, and use that to cultivate fitness as a lifelong habit. For all of us already have that in us – that’s what drew us in this challenge to begin with. I see my role (in the remaining 2 weeks) to be one where I enable you achieve your ideal fitness routine, by yourself, in the absence of the challenge and a support group. For the true objective of 21DFC is not to see who can work out the most in these 21 days, but to successfully cultivate fitness as a lifelong habit – one that occurs naturally without any force. That, is the best result anyone can hope to gain out of 21DFC.

On top of posting your progress in the daily posts, I invite you to seriously reflect on the question(s) for the day and share your answers with the group in the comments section. These questions may seem simple, but they can be powerful. All the answers we seek to life’s problems already exist in us – the key is about asking the right questions to invoke these answers.

Without further ado, let’s now proceed to our first question for Week 2! :)

Day 8 – What is Your Favorite Fitness Activity?

Knowing your favorite fitness activity / activities is important because fitness is supposed to be fun to begin with. It isn’t supposed to be a chore by any means. You’re not given your body to push it like it’s some machine. You’re given your body as a medium to do the things you love.

Me, I have a number of favorite sports.

One of my all-time favorite sports is definitely badminton. I’m not good at it (I’m a recreational player at best) but that doesn’t stop me from loving the game and playing it whenever I get the chance. I love how it’s so explosive and high-impact – I get such a good workout in every game!

I often initiate badminton sessions and invite my friends to join in, but that can be quite a hassle as I’ve to check others’ availability, coordinate the schedules, and book the court – which may not always be available. I’ve since adopted a different approach – I realize there are people who gather weekly / bi-weekly to play badminton, so I’m now joining them instead. All I need to do is turn up, put my best foot forward in the game, and contribute my share for the court rental – and in the process, meet new people!

I also like frisbee too. I was introduced to Ultimate Frisbee by a friend 3 years ago, and fell in love with the game.

For a period of time we got together almost every week to play Ultimate Frisbee, and in the process created a hub where new people would join each time, by way of word of mouth. I simply love the camaraderie built among the team members in each game – it’s such social connections that inspire me the most about team sports.

Swimming is another of my all-time favorite sports. I love the fluidity of our body from being suspended in water, and the surreality of navigating through it. It feels like we’re in a world of our own – with no one to step into it. I now swim 2-3 times a week as part of my fitness regime.

Some of you may have realized from my Week 1 fitness logs – Lately I’m falling in love with jogging, all over again (barefoot too, no less).

I find jogging to be an excellent form of meditation: As I jog, my mind empties itself of accumulated thoughts from the day/week – thoughts which I had not processed previously. My mind literally becomes freer – hence leading to more “spring” with each step I take. It’s a virtuous cycle.

Not only that, jogging presents itself as the most convenient sport for my lifestyle. I can go jogging alone without subjecting myself to anyone’s schedules, unlike group sports. I can also jog right away upon leaving my flat – as long as there is a pavement, it’s a plausible jogging path.

I’ve since made jogging a part of my staple – I now jog almost every day, either in the morning or evening, covering about 3.6km (2.2 miles). While it’s a distance I’m proud of, I look forward to pushing it a notch further in the upcoming sessions.

I’m also interested to try out water sports, like dragon boat, sailing, and possibly even surfing, in the near future. I’ve never tried any of them, but it’s a matter of time before I do.

How about you?

What is your favorite fitness activity? Why? (Feel free to list more than one activity if you have a few favorites!)
How can you incorporate it/them into your life moving forward?

Share Your Plans/Progress for Day 8!

What is your intended fitness plan for today? What physical activities are you going to do, and how long do you want to do them for? Share with us!

Update your progress as you go along. At the end of the day, review your progress and share your learnings.

Check out other participants’ responses and join in the discussions!

(Images: Silhouette of woman running, Badminton, Frisbee, Swimming, Girl jogging)