# There’s you, and there’s your body

Welcome to the chapter written on a napkin with less depth than a shallow puddle.

If you have the slightest shred of internet literacy and happen to boot up a search engine once in a blue moon, you’ve already read more in-depths guides and introductions about a variety of physical activities, because it’s something folks like to write about at length. Besides, *sports and hobbies* are the go-to answer when asking what to do to get over your loneliness or lack of love. Sports being usually introduced during childhood, I consider you well-informed on that subject and will get it done with the speed of a rabbit high on crack.

Hunched over reading this on a screen, it might not look like it, but your body is a remarkable work of self-repairing precision tuned over millennia of evolution.

I don’t know you, or your body (you handsome devil, you), but here’s a few guesses: You might be average. You might be overweight. You might be disfigured. You might be lacking a limb or suffer from an autoimmune disease. You might have excellent health while looking like a lamppost or suffer from a birth defect. You might have the body of a Greek hero with an Apollonian stature. You might be in a wheelchair.

Bottom line is, there’s a 99% chance you possess a body that should be able to more or less move around. If not, you’re either an eldritch and ethereal being born in the depths of a cold star – and you should wonder why you’re reading this – or you’re paralyzed with only your eyes moving. In the latter case, you can skip this chapter as I don’t know what sort of physical activity can be done without help.

So, what do you do with the fine machinery you’re lugging around? Get it to move some more, obviously.

The benefits or regular physical activity can easily be found in many studies, but for reminder’s sake:

* Preventing health diseases.
* Mood improvement.
* Energy boost.
* Better sleep.
* Sport itself is a fun activity.
* It can be a good way to socialize.
* And so on.

Mood improvement, and the potential focus one brings to a physical activity are of particular interest to us. If lacking love leads to frustration, running like crazy is a good way to unwind.

As for what sport to pick from, the choice is yours.\\

## No material, barely a problem

**Running** requires proper running shoes, that’s about it. Ideal when you have a forest, fields, a park, or an open city stadium close to your home. Asphalt works too if nothing else is to be found.

{% hint style="info" %}
The website Runnersblueprint has a short guide for absolute beginners should you need one.
{% endhint %}

*Relevant short-term goals*:

* Run a mile every day.
* Increase the distance ran by half a mile each week.
* Lose a kilogram every two week (without gaining any).

*Relevant long-term goals*:

* Run ten miles.
* Run a half-marathon.
* Run a marathon.\\

**Calisthenics**, also called Bodyweight workout. Think the gym, except with barely any equipment. Push-ups, squats and planks are your bread and butter. Some cities have open parks with equipment free to use. For more variation, buying resistance bands or traction bars that can be mounted on a door frame without screws is cheap and offers a few more possibilities. You can adjust when to do your seance easily, there’s no other player or gym time to wait for. On the other side, some people prefer to have a concrete gym or a membership as motivation to practice.

Similar, Crossfit workouts work on a circuit with a timer that has you go from one exercise to the next to train both muscles and cardio.

{% hint style="info" %}
You will find loads of workout routines to try out and adopt on the internet, the hardest part is picking one out among the hundreds available.
{% endhint %}

*Relevant short-term goal*:

* Increase the number of push-ups you do every week. Or pull-ups. Or crunches.
* Pick an easy routine, be it calisthenics or cross-fit, then pick a harder one after a month.

*Relevant long-term goal*:

* Get the ideal weight you're gunning for.\\

## In da club

Sports done in a group have people help each other out, which has the practical advantage of socializing. Exceptions exist, like the gym, as while there’s many people in a room, most do their routine on their own and there’s little to no small talk. Same for the swimming pool. It’s beneficial to pick a hobby or sport that helps you meet others if you don’t have much of a social life, even if you won’t see them outside of said hobby.

Prices tend to vary from club to club, so stay on the lookout. Gyms are rather expensive where I live, but soccer or martial arts are comparatively affordable.

What clubs are available to you will depend on where you live. Even if the ideal sport isn’t practiced near you, keep an open mind and try out activities you wouldn’t have considered at first. You might find it more interesting once you’ve given a try.

From soccer to basketball to dancing to karate, see what there is, the price, and the training times. Such clubs usually offer one or two sessions for free, try it out and see if you like it.

And if finances aren’t a problem, anything goes, the remaining limitations being time and motivation. **Skydiving** requires buying your own equipment (expensive) or rent the club’s equipment (also expensive). It’s also time consuming, as you’ll spend a lot of time folding the parachute back into the backpack, suit up and check other people’s equipment, wait to have a spot in the plane, and finally take flight. Folks there don’t drop by for one or two hours but for an entire day.

However, due to the length of time spent at the skydiving clubs, each of them I was at has a place serving as bar and restaurant and sofas aplenty for people to unwind after a dive. Evenings around a BBQ were a common occurrence, and members without a dive scheduled would still drop by for a beer and a hello.

**Horse riding** is another example. You can socialize with horses if you don’t feel like talking to people, and while it may seem rather chill, it works your legs, butt and posture like few sports do.

And for the chill people who like to wear caps, take walks and precision shots, **golf** is for you. But man is it expensive.\\

## Disabled

This one’s trickier. In theory, most civilized countries have programs in place supposed to make common sports like archery, cycling, horse-riding, fencing, swimming or group-sports in general accessible to disabled people, be they in wheelchairs or not.

In practice, it strongly depends on the area you live in and said area’s tendency to care about said programs. Internet websites not always being up to date, your best bet is to phone the clubs directly to ask if they have trainers and sessions in place for the disabled.

My words won’t do the sports I practiced justice, but you get the gist of it. If a sport has your curiosity, find practicing people who talk about it to get you in the mood to try it out.

Pick the physical activities you enjoy, practice them regularly, set your goals, and stick to it.
