I once had an idea to write a book entitled "It All Starts with the Playground". Having a playground in the early days can be a game changer. It's where you meet your friends, its where you have your first kiss, it's how you learn about physical training and goal setting, its where you practice your sport of choice, it's where you have monkey bar races, it's where you play freeze tag... Put people in a playground, and they will move, they will exercise in all different ways.
In my opinion, the playground leads to health, it leads to strength, which eventually leads to self-confidence. Feeling strong and able is the foundation to so many other life skills and this is why I truly believe it all starts with the playground. The unfortunate part of this story is that I realize not everyone was lucky enough to have grown up in this environment, or if they did grow up with access to parks, maybe they lost this foundation along the way... perhaps recent life has got in the way.
My point today is that it's truly never too late. If you have lived a sedentary life up until now for reasons that were in or out of your control, you can turn this around. No matter who you are, how you were raised, what your background is, we all have the ability to take health into our own hands whether its from a preventative angle or rehabilitation angle.
As a physiotherapist, if I could accomplish only one thing, this would be to take the intimidation out of movement for as many people as possible. Whether you were last picked for the soccer team in gym class umpteen years ago, or if you feel like you aren't "the athletic type", or if you stopped going to the gym because of your "bad back", I highly recommend letting these thoughts go. Let them go, because you deserve fitness.
There are always ways to adapt and modify to make it safe to move.
If you are worried or don't know where to start, please reach out.
It doesn't have to be with me, but please don't wait any longer. Remember, fear and worry influence our nervous systems and "ain't nobody got time for that"!
PS The boat... IYKYK
